Wilfred Owen’s “Insensibility” is said to be written as a response to William Wordsworth who once claimed that “Who is the happy warrior/ Who is he/ That every man in arms should wish to be”. (“Character of the Happy Warrior” )The poem appears to be a sarcastic retort to the Romantic poet when most of the stanzas begin with the tone “’Happy are these…” The format of the poem in the form of an ode adds to the cynicism of the poem. Since a ode is primarily meant to eulogize a person or aspect. Therefore Owen has made use of the Romantic poet’s medium to make his statement, and to put it through effectively.

The poet begins the poem by claiming that Happy are those soldiers who have made themselves impervious to suffering rendering their veins cold. Who have remain unaffected by compassion, neither do they have contempt or affinity for the same. They lie sore on the alleys, put together clumsily(cobbled) with their companions. The word ‘cobble’ may also signify that their value is as immaterial as material shoes. They are real troops who ‘fade’ here, real human beings and not vegetative flowers that the poet can feed on, for a subject to rant about.…