Greater Love

Greater Love by Wilfred Owen is a hard hitting and bitter critique of the war. The poem has four stanzas and is written in AABBAb rhyming style. The poem appears to be an ironic comparison between the romantic love of a man and woman which is diminished against the monumental love of a soldier’s patriotism for his country or perhaps to some extent the love and loyalty he feels for his brother in arms, his comrades who fight along side him. The image portrayed is that of a woman in mourning standing at the grave side of her dead lover while the narrator (poet) compares the two loves in a scathing and disparaging attack albeit in a tone which lacks much passion or emotion, rather in quiet acceptance.

The poem begins with “Red lips are not so red As the stained stones kissed by the English dead.” (1) The red lips are a cliché to how women at that period fashionably wore dark red lipstick and mirrors love poetry and general images of woman hood. This ‘red lips” is in direct juxtaposition of the morbidity of the words that follow signifying death. Lips are generally painted red to attract men to kiss them romantically but in comparison the grave stones are stained with red blood figuratively kissed by the dead soldier who lies within cold. Romance and passion is compared with the finality of death. This comparison continues in the same vein with continuance of diction of romance and courtship with “wooed” and “wooer”, but here we have the soldier being wooed by the lure and heroic romance that war offers on the offset. The chivalry and morality and duty in fighting for the freedom of your country. The poem in fact may also be interpreted as the war or country which is given always a female gender may play the role of a woman in seducing the soldier to sign up and join the army. The soldier has little knowledge that war is not a romantic escapade of story books and fairytales of honor and bravery but brutal and cruel. Whether the female be a woman or war or country the poet states that her eyes have lost their lure in comparison to the dead soldiers eyes blinded in the field of duty.

The female softness of form continues with “slender attitude” in the second stanza and again this is compared with a rather morbid description of a dead soldier cleavered to death with fatal blows and yet this picture is depicted as “exquisite” in comparison to the female. There is now powerful imagery “rolling and rolling there” of miles of grave stones in the distance and the religious sentiment that “God seems not to care’. God, who they prayed to before entering the war to keep them safe did not live up to his promises and now as they lie dead has abandoned them. And yet the poet goes on to claim that the soldiers “fierce love” for their country now instead of enveloping them like a comfort blanket is now in a stranglehold “cramps them in death”. Again the theme of the poem that their initial romantic notion of war has been destroyed without apology to “decripitude”. Strong diction of the soft feminine in comparison to the violent and morbid are startling and powerful.

The third stanza taunts the female that her singing voice cannot compare to the voices of the dead soldiers who “none now hear” due to their untimely demise due to a senseless war.

The fourth and final stanza brings great poignancy. The female’s heart is given lower value and reverence than the soldier’s heart that has been shot, as the soldier has sacrificed his life so that others can live in freedom and that giving gives a sense of pride which in literary terms gives a fullness due to the selfless act. Further, while the female hand is pale due to mourning it cannot be paler than the soldier who now lies dead and drained of color. The line “your cross through flame and hail,” sounds almost like an accusation to the female of the figurative cross (urden and religious symbolism) and the conditions they have to endure , such as “flame” signifying heat and “ hail” denoting bitter cold. And the final taunt that the female may weep for her loss of lover, or the country or war itself may weep for their demise but at last the soldiers rest and no mortal pain can ever touch them again.

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Wilfred Owens’s satirical” Greater Love, utilizes romantic diction, sarcastic tone and personification of the war as a woman who has lost her lure to depict his vocal condemnation of an useless war that no longer holds his appeal.

(1) – Notice Red Lips – image of female – Red Lips Stick….attractive, seductive, sexual, romantic.
(1) – Lips not so red – Sarcastic tone, not a romantic ode to female
(2) – Not as Red as Stained Stones –contrasting image of female lips to graveyard, death – Stained stones metaphor for grave stones. Lips not as red as blood stained graves, kiss of death
(2) – English Dead – Owen English
(3) – Wooed and Wooer – Alliteration – Wooer=war - female, wooed=soldiers lured to war
(4) – Shame to Love Pure – Soldiers pride and love for war contaminated, shame to solider
(5) – O, Love, your eyes lose lure – Speaks to War, females fluttering eyes losses lure
(6) – I behold eyes blinded – Contrast of female eyes to dead eyes of soldiers. Alive soldiers blinded by reality by female (war’s reach for pride and glory)

(7) Slender Attitude – female seductive curved body...movement and attitude…sexual..Sarsactic
(8) – Trembles Not Limbs Knife Skewered – Romantic diction of female trembling and her slender legs, contrast knife trembling due to nerve reaction
(9) – Rolling and Rolling – Body rolling in excruciating pain, dying
(10) – God Seems not Care – Religious Allusion – God abonanded soilders dropping dead….God watches sight of war from above with no care.
(11) – Love they bear – country, pride for war, religious. Owen had strong religious sentiments prior to war
(12) – Cramps them in death’s extreme decrepitude – Love kills soilders. No pride and honour in death, not welcomed by god. Soilders are murders…go to hell. God abandones soilders…anger at them…murders

(13) – Voice sings Not soft – Sarcastic tone – females sweet confronting voice – war proganda luring him
(14) – not so soft anymore like the murmering wind...losts its lure
…….
(17) – Whom none hear – Contrasts by soilders voice who can no longer hear - dead
(18) – Now Earth stopped their piteous mouths that coughed – Mother Nature pities soldiers, why suffer with illness, kills them. Personification

(19) Heart, you were never hot – 1st 2 stanzas NOT – while 4th NEVER – building up anger
Female never has heart, didn’t lose it – never had it – War never cared for soldiers. Not Hot – not warm, passionate.
(20) – Nor full like hearts made great with shot – contrast to soldiers heart….dead soilders were HOT and warm…war (female) NEVER was
(21) – Though Hand be Pale – wwI era pale hands considered beautiful – female
(22) – Pale are all which Trail – Trail – soldiers follow attractive female. Soliders palier by death
(23) – Cross through Flame and Hail – Religious Allusion – Soldiers bearing the Cross to their death. Flame and Hail – hell/ war dragging on for seasons
(24) – Weep you may weep, for you Touch them not – Touch them not – Romantic – All admirers of war (female) left with disgust – death. Cant’ touch them, and lure them to war as soldiers all dead. Female weeps as all her admirers are dead

Background Research - Greater Love by Wilfred Owen