In the Footsteps of Wilfred Owen (AS Unit F661)
Two day tour
This two day tour focuses on the fifteen poems by Wilfred Owen set for examination in the OCR’s AS Unit F661. Understanding the attainment objectives involved, this tour is designed to launch, reinforce or revise the set poems.
In addition, our tour guided by experts will challenge preconceptions about Owen’s poetry and offer a tantalising glimpse of what might have been had he lived.
“One dies of war like any old disease” (A Terre)
The tour begins where Owen first saw action on the Somme in 1917. Here the experiences occurred which were to shape and inform his most famous poems. On Day 2 we follow Owen and the men he commanded from the Manchesters to key locations on the Hindenburg Line during the last 100 days of the war and on to the crossing of the Sambre Canal in November 1918 a week before the Armistice was declared, ending by his grave in Ors cemetery.
“I lost all my earthly faculties and fought like an angel” (WO in letter to his parents)
Most of the set poems are covered, some in detail others by reference or to compare and contrast. A teacher’s request for a particular poem can be built in if advance notice is given. Underpinning the tour is an enduring fascination with the enigma and phenomenal achievement of a writer and soldier whose considerable literary reputation and popularity depends on about thirty poems written in fourteen months spanning 1917 and 1918.
Suggested Itinerary
Fully guided 2-day tour
Day 1
- Sheffield Park. PALS Battalions “ The old lie”
- Serre Road No 2 Cemetery. “ The Sentry"
- Redan Ridge Cemetery "Exposure” and “Futility”.
- Newfoundland Memorial Park “ All a poet can do is warn--”
- Thiepval “Anthem for Doomed Youth” ,“Strange Meeting” .
- Riqueval Bridge : Crossing of the canal by the Manchesters
- Joncourt - The German Defences & the Church
- The Sambre Canal - ‘Where death becomes absurd and life absurder’
- Ors Cemetery ‘Shall life renew these bodies? Of a truth all death will he annul?’
Remarkably, the fifteen poems set for examination were written in the last nine months of his life and of the Great War itself. The tour will not only study these poems in detail on location where the events took place but will also look at how Owen changed in the last 100 days of the war.
What inspired him to lead his men in an almost suicidal assault across a major water obstacle in broad daylight a matter of days before the war was to end, a fact that would have almost certainly been known to him?
“Where death becomes absurd and life absurder” (Apologia)
“I shot one man with my revolver. The rest I took with a smile” (WO in a letter to his mother)
In carefully selected locations linked directly to Owen’s military career or a particular theme in his work, our specialist literature guides will engage your students in stimulating and challenging discussion appropriate to their level of study. Each location will blend biographical detail and appreciation of the distinctiveness of his technique with relevant literary, historical and social contexts.
Suggested Itinerary
Fully guided 1-day tour
- Sheffield Park. PALS Battalions "The old lie"
- Serre Road No 2 Cemetery. "The Sentry"
- Newfoundland Memorial Park “ All a poet can do is warn--”
- Thiepval “Anthem for Doomed Youth” ,“Strange Meeting” .
- Overview of Owen's achievement and different critical perspectives in the 90+ years after his death.
“Shall life renew these bodies? Of a truth all death will he annul” (Epitaph on Owen’s headstone from The End)
One day tour
We can provide a one day Wilfred Owen tour focussing on the his battlefield experiences on the Somme.
This fully guided tour will allow students to see the impact these have on Owen as a man and consequently the influence it has on his work.
