Meghan Jennings

English 202
May 1, 2014
Discovering Truth

Wilfred Owens poem Strange Meeting delves into the internal struggles of a man
plagued by the atrocities of war and its consequences on his perceptions of his experiences. The
poetic form Owen used, the heroic couplet, is characterized by rhyming pairs of lines, a general
use of iambic pentameter, and high subject matters. These subjects include the biggest ideas
and issues the human mind can conceive, such as existence, human struggle, God, and so on.
Staying true to the heroic couplets form of higher subject matter, Owens poem discusses war,
conflict, and the wrongs committed by men. He shapes the poem using slant rhyme, revolving
much of the poem around the meaning behind one of the most significant words: truth. Of the 14
Oxford English Definitions for the word, the meaning most relevant to the poem refers to truth as
The fact or facts; the actual state of the case; the matter or circumstance as it really is. With
this definition in mind, the actual state of war can be examined through the lens of the two
soldiers in Hell. This lens connects the two in the pain, terror, and struggles felt because of the
war: one which leaves countless men to deal with the remnants of their wounds, both internal
and external. The poem seeks to unveil the truth of the brutal reality, grief, and destruction
caused by battle. Owens use of the word truth and the descriptions made by the stranger in the
poem both emphasize the futility of battle, the sorrow of time lost, and the nature of life that
continually goes on.
The poem begins when the narrating soldier is killed in battle, travels down a dark tunnel

to Hell, and has an unforeseen encounter with a man he killed in the war. The stranger tells him
that even in the afterlife there are reasons to mourn: for a life devoid of hope and for wasted
time, both having to do with the true reality of war. The stranger emphasizes the value of time in
the following metaphor, in which the beauty in living life lies not calm in eyes, or braided
hair,/ But mocks the steady running of the hour, (lines 19 20). Neither peace nor love are the
most important aspects in life, but rather the running of the hour, which implies the value of
time and the nature of its hasty departure. Both love and peace are high subject matters,
important in their own ways and worthy of mention. However, Owen is saying that these
elements are ephemeral, and will come and go throughout ones lifetime. Time, on the other
hand, is the one thing that remains constant. It is the one thing that cannot be created, taken back,
or revisited: it can only be used up. The monumentality of this tragedy plays into Owens
definition of truth, the fact of the matter, because none of the living has realized the uselessness
of war. As a result, the time of the stranger, the soldier, and all of the men still alive and fighting
is wasted.
The word truth in itself can be taken many ways, which means the way Owens poem
is read can impact the meaning of the poem. A few general ideas behind truth involve themes
such as politics, religion, matters of the heart, or social justice. Because the most appropriate
definition for this poem states that truth is the actual state of the case, it causes the reader to
imagine its only other option: lies, deceit, and fictions. Lines 22-25 help to explain this:
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.

The stranger begins by saying that even though the conditions of war were horrendous, he still
valued his time left on Earth. The strangers glee at living during the war would have been
seen as a joke to the other men, as the conditions of war were atrocious. For the other men, death
may have been preferable to fighting in the war. The strangers happiness during the war was
because he still had time left to live. His weeping, equivalent to the wisdom of experience, gave
him knowledge of the pain and uselessness of war. This experiential knowledge is what the
stranger leaves in the living world: the truth untold. Now in Hell, he is unable to tell the living
about the pity of war: that it causes unnecessary sorrow and ultimately resolves nothing. In
addition, the tragedy and pity of war emerges when the narrating soldier kills the stranger. Both
men were told by their nations that the other man was the enemy, even though the two men
realize they have more in common than they originally thought. Their unforeseen camaraderie
while in Hell suggests that the stranger, and now the soldier, see the flaws in war that the nations
do not. Their countries do not see or choose to recognize the personal loss among ordinary
citizens: a pervasive, hovering sadness in wars among battling nations. In talking with the
narrator who killed him, the stranger compares the dark sides of themselves, the pain they both
went through, and the tragedy of having to withhold the truth of their ordeals. The stranger chose
to keep his opinions to himself, not wanting to attack the nations decision to go to war by
revealing his own weaknesses and pain from both external and internal battle scars. The decision
to withhold this information from the ones who needed to hear it most resulted in even greater
anguish of the dead stranger: even he, like the nations, was unable to reveal the truth.
As mentioned before, the definition relevant to Owens poem involves reality, facts, and
the actual state of what something is, which in this case, is war. The ideas behind this particular
definition of truth in its regard to battle brings to mind harsh wartime environments, unpleasant

living conditions, unhappy and dissatisfied men, and brutal warfare. The definition also calls
into question why the men are fighting in the first place. The legitimacy of the nations goals are
unclear to the men; what the nations are trying to accomplish by making the soldiers endure the
bitter realities of war is hidden from them: the ones who most need to know why. Owen
addresses the issues of truth in wartime in lines 34-39:
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.
The stranger begins by saying he would have used the wisdom he gained from his wartime
experience to wipe the metaphorical blood stains off of those who went through the same
experiences. Owen then plays on the word by saying truths that lie, meaning that the truths
spoken by their nations were really lies they fed the soldiers to convince them to fight in the
battle. In this regard, the stranger means he would reveal the truth about the war and its
circumstances to those who believe the benefit of war outweighs its cost. The second section of
lines tragically says why the stranger felt unable to tell the men that the war was wrong. Showing
his emotional and physical scars would have caused the men to lose respect for him, and they
would not have listened. In addition, he withheld his thoughts because the war was almost at its
end, and convincing the soldiers of the wars futility would ultimately be ineffectual.
There are many words in Owens poem that relate to one another, which also contribute
to the importance of the word truth. Some include war, men, Hell, blood, world, hope, and life.

Looking at this lexical group reveals how the words are interrelated: how war and truth arent
always synonymous, and how blood and wounds are not only aspects of the afterlife in Hell, but
are also the sufferings of men in the living world. Truth is critical to this poem, not only because
it provides insight to the state of war and its atrocities, but also for the contrasting truths, the lies,
and the false assumptions associated with it. In this case, what truth is and what it is not are both
essential to understanding what is happening in Owens poem.
The prominence of truth in Strange Meeting highlights the struggles both the soldier
and the stranger endured not only during the war, but after they had escaped into death. In their
afterlives, they both end up in Hell, where they can relate the experiential hell of fighting in the
war with each other. Of the many subjective and objective meanings behind truth, the ultimate
reality, horror, and tragic futility of war is was what Wilfred Owen tries to convey to the reader.
For everything said and heard about war, truth can bring forth the reality of a horrible situation:
the lies of nations, the individuals real experience of terror, violence, and emotional trauma, and
the mutual inability to reveal what should be told. Truth has the unique and powerful ability to
reveal what is not said. Expressing the true experiences that soldiers went through in troubled
times can lead to a world of truth: one with less conflict and more hope.