Fran Bove 12LLG 31st Jan 2001
             A Close reading of "Strange Meeting" to show its relation to other poems by Wilfred Owen
             "Strange Meeting" is a poem that is full of literary allusions. The most obvious of which is Wilfred Owen's own preface to the collection of poems, used in line 25.
             This is one of the very few times, that he ever uses his own words or phrases in another poem.
             In line 39 Wilfred Owen writes about
             "Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were"
             This could be seen as men working so hard that they are sweating blood, which triggers the thought that sweat is almost as important as blood due to the risk of dehydration in the trenches. It could also be interpreted as a relation to the bible, when Jesus wore his crown of thorns, which made him bleed on his forehead. This is an ironic thought because the men that have died in the war have died as martyrs to their countries whereas Jesus died as a martyr for his faith.
             References to the Bible can be found in most of Wilfred Owen's war poetry, due to the fact that he was struggling philosophically with the dilemma that if God did exist why did he allow war to exist too?
             In the third line of the poem he talks about the wars being "titanic", we relate this to mythology because the titans were a group of Gods that preceded the Greek gods, such as Atlas and to for something to be titanic it has to be on a godlike scale. Following on from this Owen continues the theme in line nine and goes on to talk about Norse mythology and the "sullen hall" of Valhalla. According to ancient Norse mythology, 'Valhalla' was a brave and noble Viking's final resting place where bountiful feasts, endless drink, music and friendship were to be shared by all under a roof of antlers. This is ironic as the men that have died have not gone to heaven but hell, are although may have consid...