The First World War, also known as the Great War, was initially centered in Europe. The war is known as one of the most catastrophic wars of all time. It is estimated that over 9 million combatants were killed, and overall, the war claimed 17 million lives. The Great War began on September 28th 1914, when a Serbian assassinated Archduke Ferdinand. The assassination led to Austria declaring war on Serbia. Soon after, Germany declared war on Russia and France. The First World War ultimately included 32 countries, including the United States, which entered the war on April 6, 1917. The Great War lasted four years and ended on November 11, 1918. In the end, Britain, Russia, and France took victory over Germany, Hungary, Austria …show more content…
The Fields of Agony: British Poetry of the First World War states, “Patients suffering from what was termed shell shock or neurasthenia were encouraged to talk and write about the horrific experiences that had caused their conditions; many less celebrated writers discovered the cure for themselves, and found eager readers” (Sillars 11). The poem “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen, and the poems “They” and “Glory of Women” by Siegfried Sassoon, explore the negative effects the Great War had on soldiers, while also revealing society’s reaction towards the soldiers enlistment and their return home.
Aside from being killed, one of the terrors and negative effects soldiers encountered during the First World War was becoming physically injured. Wilfred Owen was able to express the physical and emotional battle of a wounded soldier and societies reaction towards the soldiers in his poem “Disabled.” Honorably, at the age of 22 Owen joined the British Army in 1915, where his poetry was able to capture the brutality of his experience. His poem “Disabled” was written in 1917 during his time in Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh, and described the physical and emotional battle of a wounded soldier. The