The Sentry
Owen began THE SENTRY while he was receiving hospital treatment at Craiglockhart in 1917
and he continued it the following summer. Finally, it was completed in France that September.
For its origins we go back to a letter to his mother dated 16th January 1917.
In the platoon on my left the sentries over the dug-out were blown to nothing. One of these poor
fellows was my first servant whom I rejected. If I had kept him he would have lived, for servants
don't do Sentry Duty. I kept my own sentries half way down the stairs during the more terrific
bombardment. In spite of this one lad was blown down and, I'm afraid, blinded.
A very personal poem, therefore, the eighteen month gap between the experience and its
translation into words suggests an experience of great intensity.
The verse is basically iambic but trochees at significant points disturb the rhythm and effectively
accentuate the unrest and tension, while the break at line 10 suggests that Owen is looking for his
readers to pause and maybe gasp.
The parallels with DULCE ET DECORUM EST are quite noticeable. As in DULCE a young
soldier suffers a tragic fate in horrifying circumstances and in Owen's presence. Remembering
how the war preyed on Owen's mind to the extent that he experienced nightmares, a symptom of
the condition for which he was treated at Craiglockhart In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me……….(DULCE)
Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids'
Watch my dreams still….
I try not to remember these things now. (THE SENTRY)
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea I saw him drowning. (DULCE)
Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime
Kept slush waist-high and rising hour by hour,
And one who would have drowned himself for good, (THE SENTRY)
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime…… (DULCE)
To beg a stretcher somewhere, and flound'ring about (THE SENTRY)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-need, coughing like hags……(DULCE)
Those other wretches……(THE SENTRY)
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face……….(DULCE)
Eyeballs, huge-bulged, like squids', (THE SENTRY)
In both poems Owen shows us men under unendurable stress. Like the men in ANTHEM FOR
DOOMED YOUTH who "die as cattle", these are "herded from the blast". A whine is one of the
least manly of sounds but our sentry, all shreds of dignity lost, whines, "O, sir, - my eyes,- ". He
sobs, needs, child-like, to be coaxed, which also points to another of war's features - the paternal
role of the junior officer.
Those such as Owen in effect became surrogate fathers to the young men under their command,
and the care that Owen shows in this poem typifies those acts of succour without number that
punctuate the insensible business of war. At the same time Owen conscientiously tells the entire
truth. "Yet I forgot him there." Even moments of selflessness give way. Not to indifference, but
simply to life as it is, to the need to, as it were, get on. And so it is here, Owen "half-listening to
the sentry's moans and jumps" as he goes about his other duties.
The poem opens almost conversationally, though with understated menace in "and he knew".
(line 1). But this is an occasion when Owen will not draw back from presenting truth in its most
graphic form. Thus, THE SENTRY takes its place alongside, for example, DULCE ET
DECORUM EST, THE SHOW, MENTAL CASES, and relentlessly unveils the full scale of
war's horrors.
One of his techniques is to make use of onomatopoeia (words echoing the sound of what he is
describing). A succession of identical vowel sounds (u): "buffeting", "snuffing", "thud", "flump",
"thumping", "pummelled", "crumps" which suggest hard-hitting assault and battery and ruthless
punishment. We also find "mud", "ruck" (repeated), heavy, ugly words that match the situation.
Then, "shrieking air" to denote both the sound of bombs and the terror that goes with it.
And one who would have drowned himself for good.
Here is double ambiguity, as to the identity of "one" and "for good" as a final act simply, or as
leading to some better existence; while for a combined visual-aural image, "And the wild
chattering of his shivered teeth" is horrifying and unforgettable.
How powerfully Owen conveys the conditions they live - and - die under. "Waterfalls of
slime" (4) is almost an oxymoron, for our notion of a waterfall is surely of a pure, clear cascade.
We see "the steps too thick with clay to climb" (6) and that awful olfactory image, "What murk
of air remained stank old, and sour." (7).
Atmosphere is heightened by examples of what Ruskin called Pathetic Fallacy, the practice of
attributing human emotions to inanimate objects - a form of personification. In line 2, "Shell on
frantic shell" and the whizz-bangs that "found our door at last" (11) both add a layer of
malevolence to the enemy action.
Lastly, "lit" in line 3, though meaning "alighted" not "showed light", seems an interesting choice
of word in view of the poem's "light" motif - the candles, the sentry's cries of "I'm blind", the
flame held against his lids. That last line "I see your lights! - But ours had long gone out" makes
a terrifying conclusion, not only underlining the personal tragedy but on a wider front reminding
us of the famous words of Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary at the outbreak of war:
The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.
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http://wilfredowen.org.uk/poetry/the-sentry
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'The Sentry' was written by Owen as a result of a horrific incident the poet witnessed in the
trenches of World War One, in particular, on the Somme; tells the reader of the terrible
conditions and experiences that the men endured throughout the war. He focuses on a
particular memory of when a sentry was blasted from his post and was blinded. Owens
description of this traumatising event evokes clear images in the reader's mind and it
becomes even more poignant when we consider this is a real life experience of the poet.
Owens poems were particularly shocking as the citizens of Britain were led to believe other
prominent war poets such as Jessie Pope and Rupert Brooke’s idealized version of warfare.
Alliteration is a language technique used frequently in Wilfred Owens poems to present
warfare; Owen repeats different letters to give a different sound and attitude to each poem.
The use of alliteration in ‘The Sentry’ on the letter t in the sentence ‘And the wild chattering
of his shivered teeth’ gives a broken sound to the sentence, mirroring the fragmentation of
the soldiers’ lives. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ also uses alliteration of the letter r in the
phrase ‘rifles rapid rattle’ although Owen uses this alliteration to replicate the sounds of the
battlefield as it creates a harsh resonance to the poem.
‘The Sentry’ uses repetition as a sound device. The line, ‘And gave us hell; for shell on frantic
shell’ and ‘mud in ruck on ruck.’ establishes a regular rhythm which portrays the
relentlessness in which Owens regiment were attacked. Repetition is also used the ‘The Last
Laugh’ in two of the lines, ‘vain! vain! vain!’ and ‘Tut-tut! Tut-tut!’. This repetition creates a
rhythm that gives the poem a hectic, energetic feel that mirrors the chaos and urgency on the
battlefield. This is also the same effect that the alliteration creates in ‘The Sentry’.
Word choice in ‘The Sentry’ is used to create a vivid mental image; "I can't," he sobbed. Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids
Watch my dreams still;
The word choice of ‘squids’ gives the reader a repulsive image that also helps Owen imply
that in World War I this kind of experience was a regular occurrence. The phrase ‘Watch my
dreams still,’ has connotations of being haunted, as in ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ where the
effect is markedly more unsettling because of the word choices;
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
The verbs ‘guttering, choking, drowning.’ bring action to the poem and therefore mimicking
the action on the battlefield; this helps Owen present the experience of warfare as an
unnecessary battle between countries. The word ‘helpless’ also suggests a certain
helplessness on behalf of the soldiers. This could also be a criticism of the Government as
they are leaving them unprepared, and this causes the deaths in the army.
In ‘The Sentry’ religion is a theme that the focus is not directly until the last line, where the
blinded sentry shouts, ‘I see your lights!’ The light is a symbol of religion which could be
interpreted in two ways. The first sentence of the line could talk about the Sentry’s death,
with the light representing cliché ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’, bringing a positive
outlook of death. However the last sentence, ‘But ours had long died out.’ counteracts the
positive image the reader sees with the idea if the soldiers ‘flames’ being their faith in
religion. The feeling evoked is that the loss of light is their loss of faith in God and they are
therefore condemned to hell for their actions whilst fighting in the War. This idea also
corroborates with Owens feelings towards the Church, as he abandoned his Evangelical
religion and in a letter to his mother wrote, ‘There is a point where blasphemy becomes
indistinguishable from prayer.’ Another poem that echoes this sentiment is ‘Anthem for
Doomed Youth’ in the way that the poem talks of having ‘no prayers nor bells;’. This poem,
although being centered on religion isn’t expressing a loss of faith but saying that religion
isn’t enough to save them. This presents warfare as unnecessary evil, and soldiers are being
sent to hell for fighting for their country, which they are led to believe is honourable thing by
war poets such as Jessie Pope.
Pathetic fallacy presents nature as a theme of ‘The Sentry’. The lines;
Rain guttering down in waterfalls of slime
Kept slush waist-high and rising hour by hour
These two lines encapsulates the idea that nature has become the British Armies enemies and
that the Germans have become less of a threat in comparison. The use of pathetic fallacy
gives the poem an aura of inevitability and the rain seems to give the poem a sinister tone. In
this sense Owen presents the experience of war as a regrettable, dark one. This idea also
links in with the poem ‘Futility’ where pathetic fallacy is a technique also used. The use of
the technique on the words ‘sun’ and ‘snow’ gives the poem different contrasting ideas of
hope and despair. It also reflects peoples different opinions of war; the sun being the citizens
of Britain who have only heard the patriotic war poetry written by Jessie Pope and other
significant war poets, and the snow being the soldiers bleak, negative but realistic view of it,
as they can speak from personal x is used in the poem ‘The Sentry’ to present warfare as a
dehumanising experience. The phrase ‘frantic shell’ personifies the weaponry, with the word
‘frantic’ creating a chaotic image. The personification of the weaponry devalues the soldiers
to the level of the weapons, suggesting that the soldiers are non-entities to the Government,
like the weapons. This also links into the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ where the soldiers
are called ‘cattle’ suggesting that the soldiers are simply a mass of animals that can be easily
massacred. Owen in these two poems effectively shows his resentment towards the
Government and emphasizes the fact that some soldiers’ experience of warfare is frenzied
but short-lived. ‘The Sentry’ opens with the use iambic pentameter however the regular rhythm then
descends into chaos as other examples of pentameter such as trochaic in the line ‘Rain,
guttering down in waterfalls of slime’, by using more than one form of pentameter Owen
reflects the action and turmoil on the battlefield, however by keeping many of lines within
the pentameter scheme Owen replicates the experience of the relentless assault that the
British soldiers were under on the front line.
Rhythmically in ‘The Sentry’ the pentameter is interrupted by the use of caesura, which
creates a disjointed effect that fits the disturbing nature of warfare. This is evident in the
line ‘And gave us hell; for shell on frantic shell’. The semi-colon interrupts the flow that is
created by the pentameter and echoes the experience that warfare has had on the soldiers;
showing that the soldiers lives have been suspended by the war.
http://www.eliteskills.com/analysis_poetry/The_Sentry_by_Wilfred_Owen_analysis.php
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It's a war poem in realistic mode, rather than romantic or heroic mode. It's in a strange inbetween form that seems to be reflected in the way that it's printed or laid out on the
screen. Most people break into three long stanzas, but they break it in different places. I
don't know enough to know if Owen gave a clear direction on this - you'd have to look at
manuscripts.
Underlying it is a traditional English stanza that is a quatrain of iambic pentameter. It is easy
to find lines that are clear pentameters, but there is a constant undermining of that
predictable rhythm with metrical substitutions and variations. The stanzas are mostly
rhymed, but the rhyme pattern varies. The traditional rhyme patterns are either abcb, or
abab, but Owen uses the less common envelope pattern - abba - quite often. The opening
eight or twelve lines, which don't really resolve into quatrains, seem at first to have an abac
pattern, which has a very 'unresolved' feel.
I've set it out to try and show how the quatrain pattern can be found within the poem, purely
for analysis. As you can see, the opening is really quite complex, working across eight, twelve
or even sixteen lines.
Owen could, if he'd wanted, have used perfect iambic pentameters with a regular rhyme
scheme. That he chose not to is, I suspect, intended to deny the reader the feeling that all
the emotion and experience of the trenches could somehow be held within a traditional form.
When there is the closure of the final rhymed couplet, the sense it carries is of failure. The
light has gone out - whatever that light might be, faith, belief in the goodness of human
nature, the light of reason, hope - it's gone.
The images press in on Owen when he would prefer to not see them: 'I try not to remember
these things now.' The poem was written when Owen was recovering at Craiglockhart in
Edinburgh. Owen says 'Let dread hark back for one word only;' and that word is a question, in
lower case, without even a question mark. It is impossible not to ask the question, as people
observing war or the sack of cities at first hand have asked for millennia. But there is never
an answer, and nobody sane expects one.
The specific incident seems to relate to a soldier who was assigned to Owen as his servant or
batman. Owen had rejected him in favour of someone else. Being Owen's batman meant not
having to do sentry duty. The rejected soldier did have to do sentry duty, which is how he
came to be where he was when the shell landed. If that is the incident, which Owen writes
about in a letter to his mother, then the soldier died, and Owen blamed himself. Owen
probably realised that blaming himself was irrational. In circumstances like that, sadly,
recognising that there is no guilt does not stop a person feeling it.
So it's a bleak view of things, because it's an honest view of things. The blinded soldier cries
out, when the shock of nearby shell bursts shakes him, 'I see your lights' - one of the sentry's
jobs was to make sure that no light was showing that could attract enemy fire. But in reality
he sees nothing. It is a spasmodic, instinctive shout, desperate and pointless, from a man who
will soon be dead.