Parable of the Old Man and the Young by Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen is one of this courses assigned poets, but this work isn't on our assigned reading list, however I found it most interesting. I recognized the parable as Abraham and his son Isaac. (Owen poem http://goo.gl/5lwS4) (Bible verses http://goo.gl/TsiYZ)

In this case, the work is alluding to Genesis 22:1-18. Structure is important here as he paraphrases verses as lines in his poem, and very effectively too. From line 13-16, he deviates from the original anecdote to have his Abraham slaughter the son, rather than "the Ram of Pride" tangled by its horns. The final line, "And half the seed of Europe, one by one.", turns this anecdote into a haunting political metaphor of World War I. Representing the pride of great sovereign nations, the Ram is spared by "the Old Man", sending their "son" (soldiers, boys, countrymen, etc.)  to die in their prideful places. This puts depth to the idea of national pride in war time. The idea is that national leaders have passed their pride (knowingly or otherwise) into the hands of their sons who are willing (and unwilling) to die for their country (represented here by Abraham). From this vain of though, I re-read the work to find a completely different message from my first reading. The symbolism is extensive even though the tale is one so many know.

Personally, I found this bit remarkable, albeit hard to read from an emotional standpoint. Since Owen manages to take a single idea (pride) and stretch it from Parlament, to the soldiers of WWI, to the bible, makes this a feat of triangular word-smithing! I was stunned at how well he abbreviated the biblical text into clear lines of great poetry, and then he blew my mind in the last 4 lines. Needless to say, I enjoyed this one. :-)

On a different topic, this poem is one of nine that Benjamin Britten, a famous British composer of the mid 20th century,  used as a setting for his War Requiem (1962).