Strange Meeting

It seemed that out of battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Through granites which titanic wars had groined.
Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,
Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.
Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared
With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,
Lifting distressful hands as if to bless.
And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall
By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.
With a thousand pains that vision's face was grained;
Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground,
And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.
"Strange friend," I said, "here is no cause to mourn."
"None," said that other, "save the undone years,
The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,
Was my life also; I went hunting wild
After the wildest beauty in the world,
Which lies not calm in eyes, or braided hair,
But mocks the steady running of the hour,
And if it grieves, grieves richlier than here.
For of my glee might many men have laughed
And of my weeping something had been left,
Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,
The pity of war, the pity war distilled.
Now men will go content with what we have spoiled,
Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled.
They will be swift with the swiftness of the tigress.
None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.
Courage was mine, and I had mystery,
Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery:
To miss the march of this retreating world
Into vain citadels that are not walled.
Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels,
I would go up and wash them from sweet wells,
Even with truths that lie too deep for taint.
I would have poured my spirit without stint
But not through wounds; not on the cess of war.
Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were.
I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now . . . ."
Meanings of Some Words or Expressions




escaped=fled away

tunnel = An underground

scooped= formed a hollow or hollows in;dug

groined=provided with groins(The curved edge at the junction of two intersecting vaults)

encumbered =loaded to excess or impeded by a heavy load;

groaned=voiced a deep, inarticulate sound, as of pain, grief, or displeasure.

probed =delved into; investigated

sprang up= jumped over

piteous =arousing pity

recognition =acceptance or acknowledgment of a claim, duty, fact, truth, etc.in fixed eyes,

sullen =showing irritation or ill humor by a gloomy silence or reserve.

grained=caused to form into grains; granulate.

save =except

braided =Decorated with braid

distilled= separated or extracted the essential elements of

spoiled=Goods or property seized from a victim after a conflict, especially after a military victory.

spilled=caused or allowed (a substance) to run or fall out of a container

trek =A journey or leg of a journey, especially when slow or difficult.

citadels =A stronghold or fortified place; a bulwark.

clogged =obstructed movement

stint=restrict or limit

cess =a. the obligation to provide the soldiers and household of the lord deputy with supplies at fixed prices

b. any military exaction

frowned=expressed (disapproval, for example) by wrinkling the brow

jabbed =poked or thrust abruptly; stab or pierce

parried= warded off (a sword thrust, blow, weapon, etc.); turned aside; dodged;parried a thrust, blow

loath =Unwilling or reluctant





The Poem-An Introduction

'I am the enemy you killed, my friend '

Strange Meeting was written in the spring of 1918. The name of Owen was enlisted in the month of January in 1917 and was sent to the war front of Somme .There he was stricken with a dangerous shell shock.He was hospitalized in Craiglockhart Hospital..Sassoon went there to see the poet who was greatly influenced by the great war poet Siegfried Sassoon.Besides Owen was being haunted there by nightmares for his terrific experience against the shock of the shell in the battlefield.There are Shelley's 'The Revolt of Islam',Sassoon's 'The Rear Guard' and Owen's 'Earth's Wheels' behind this great creation.



Owen himself is the first-person narrator.Though the second speaker is also catering the Owen's message of peace,compromise.Here the poet-speaker is playing two roles at the same time.He has double roles: one bullet-ed and the other bullet-er;one killed and the other killer who are delivering a speech for the sake of humanity and its progress by sharing their own bitter war experiences.


Structurally the poem comprises of forty four iambic pentameter lines .This poem is divided into three irregular stanzas with the para rhymed couplets.



Summary

Strange Meeting is a visionary poem where the poet speaks of a dream that he dreamed overnight .He imagines that he has fled away from battle and gone to the other world underneath the battlefield where two soldiers, an English soldier and a German soldier(who stands from among the eternal sleepers who are huddled together meet together .The dead one springs up with piteous recognition in fixed eyes.The poet considers the place as hell when he minutely observes the appearance of the dead soldier.Being asked the second speaker explains the cause of his bereavement.There is no cause to lament as the worry making components are totally absent there.It is quiet and calm.He is regretting because unfortunately devastating War has taken away his life before he could have passed on to humanity the true knowledge(the pity of war,the pity war distilled) he has gained from his direct experience in battlefield.With the end of his life,this knowledge also dies.The fact that the years wasted in war always haunts him and makes him lament.Thus the truth does not come to light.The warmongers may remain satisfied for what they have destroyed and if not may raise to the status of a more terrible,destructive,horrible one than the before.He doubts that the future world will continue organize more appalling war.The advancement of science or mechanics will add horror to it.WAR will be more expeditious.He could have joined the people in their backward march to bring them forward.If the talents and calibers would have been used other wise for the development of progress of human civilization ,the world would have watched a better world.He would have rejuvenated humanity with the blessings of universal brotherhood,racial equality,justice and freedom.He would have struggled to wean away from their inequities ,not on the tax or the demand of war ,but in the pursuit of peace and progress.He could pursue the poetic truth(not romantic love) that is above time.Now the strange friend tells the act of murdering him by the first soldier and the act of dying himself.The speaker abruptly addresses the first soldier to join him in the perpetual sleep.An enemy becomes a friend in hell.
Date:18.04.2013 16:06:00



Light Explanation

The use of the word 'seemed' clearly backs up the establishing the poem as a visionary one where to the poet-speaker ,it appeared, such incident as stated in the poem took place in his life.
The first speaker or the poet-speaker who murdered the enemy German soldier in the battlefield also fled away from the war front.Thus the victorious person did not like to be in the battlefield as he had gathered direct experience from the battle which taught him the true brutality of war.None in this beautiful earth wants to die .
"It seemed that out of battle I escaped


The excessive loaded soldiers were voicing an inarticulate sound to berieve for their deaths but to make themselves purified because of their brutal activities they served for their country .They had done an inhumane duty for which they thought they were sent to the purgatory.
The second speaker, understanding his own fault, descended to the down of the tunnel and investigated the enemy-friend who jumped up instantly being asked and expressed deep emotion he had .Here in this world all became slow.All became morbid,morose.First 'smile' refers to the reciprocal recognition while the second refers to the understanding of the poet about the place where he had come and recognized at once after watching the face of the dead that this was hell sure.'Piteous recognition' implies the remembering of the fight of these two against each other and the second's unfortunate untimely death in the hand of the first in spite of being the humanity they used to bear since their birth and surprisingly after its death he understood the truth and lifted his 'distressful' hands and blessed the first not to be killed in war and not to fight in war to save the world from the atrocities of war.He wanted this speaker to continue to bear the ideals he had gained from war field.'A thousand pains' refers to the unlimited suffering .'Vision face' refers to the face of the dead soldier.'Down the flues made moan' refers to the tattering sound made by canon balls as they are shot through the air.It resembles the wailing sound caused for the deaths of the soldiers.Now the poet speaker wanted the dead speaker not to lament because he had come to a world which was beyond the touch of sorrow and disappointment.
But the dead soldier lamented not for such trivial reason but for the wastage of time for some mean cause;by which he could have tremendous duties for noble cause.He had great possibilities.But death caused a dead stop to his aim,mission, intention.He hankered after ideals of beauty which does not lie in the eyes of a beautiful woman or in the 'braided hair of her .If the dead soldier were alive he would have delivered to the world on the 'pity of war'.The German soldier had courage and the knowledge of mystery of war .He would have delivered it to the world.He would have tried to stop barbaric war.He would have certainly delivered theory of pacifism.Finally the German soldier asserted that the poet speaker was the enemy who had killed him on previous day.But he had no anger for his brutal act,he asked him to take rest which the German soldier felt.This suggestion to sleep again indicates the incident to take place in a sleeping condition or in a trance.