“The Unreturning” By Wilfred Owen
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-unreturning-2/ ANALYSIS: The poem “ The Unreturning” by Wilfred Owen, creates a sense of questions and chills. This poem asks the reader what happens after death. In this poem the author is going through the process of death. They don’t know what is happening or where the are. He sees people he once knew in life, but now they’re dead. He sees everything is turned upside down and doesn’t know what to think. He uses words such as, “Thunder-walled” and “indefinite” to show that he is scared and frightened. The author sets up the poem making it seem like he is still on earth but something had happened, like a war or maybe a natural disaster. Then, by the end of the poem he says, “ dreaded even a heaven with doors so chained,” shows the reader that he’s in the afterlife but it doesn’t seem like the loving heaven everyone talks about. He is confused to why no one is speaking to him and why everyone is going around like zombies. If this is supposed to be heaven isn’t there suppose to be light, cheerfulness, and love. Shouldn’t people be talking and dancing. On earth the afterlife was talked about as going to heaven and being a “better place,” however, it’s not. It is dark and scary and no one to speak too. The author uses harsh words to show the characters are dead and motionless. He uses these strong words to get the idea of death across, there is no great or beautiful afterlife, it is scary and lifeless. Owen writes this poem to question the after life. He is on the verge of a painful process, death, and doesn’t know if there will be a heaven. People have always said heaven was a better place, but what if it isn’t. What if there is just hell. Owen leaves the recurring question about what happens when we die, is it scary, or is it the heaven we have always thought there was. My favorite line from this poem is “I dreaded even a heaven with doors so chaine.” This line makes it seem like heaven has a lock and that heaven has always been just a lie we tell ourselves so we can live for something. Humans want to feel they have a purpose and that when they die they go to heaven, where it is a better place. Where we live with all the people who have died before us. I strongly like this poem, as i am a believer in god and heaven. I also believe that we come back to life as other people. But if we don’t is there a heaven and a hell. Or is it just nothing, lifeless. Which then makes the question if it is nothing, then why live to die. Why live to become something great and then just die and become another headstone. Life is complicated, but afterlife is much more complicated. We have no one to come back and say “hey don’t worry you’re going to heaven, or hey don’t try nothing happens.” Because once someone is dead, we no longer see them anymore. They’re gone. Which once again brings the question of what happens when we die. But until someone visits me and tells me then that question will remain until I die.
2 Comments
Eng
4/1/2017 08:10:46 am
Nice, Haleigh. Owen is known as a war poet, criticizing the senseless deaths that arise from war. How does that add to your interpretation of this poem?
Reply
Hi Haleigh,
Reply
Leave a Reply. |