Wilfred Owen

At a Calvary near the Ancre

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Christ as War Victim

Owen reimagines Christ as a contemporary soldier, literally wounded in World War I's landscape.

One ever hangs where shelled roads part.
In this war He too lost a limb,
But His disciples hide apart;
And now the Soldiers bear with Him.
Near Golgotha strolls many a priest,

Religious Hypocrisy

Priests display pride in their war wounds, contradicting Christ's message of compassion.

And in their faces there is pride
That they were flesh-marked by the Beast
By whom the gentle Christ's denied.
The scribes on all the people shove
And bawl allegiance to the state,
But they who love the greater love
Lay down their life; they do not hate.
This work was published before January 1, 1931, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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Reading Notes

War as Crucifixion: Owen's Radical Reinterpretation

Owen transforms the biblical crucifixion narrative into a World War I allegory, positioning Christ as a modern soldier suffering alongside troops. By setting the poem near the Ancre river—a site of brutal trench warfare—he collapses historical distance between biblical sacrifice and contemporary military violence.

The poem critiques institutional religion's complicity in war. Priests and scribes represent power structures that promote violence while claiming moral superiority, in stark contrast to soldiers who 'love the greater love' by sacrificing themselves without hatred.

Technical Subversions of Religious Imagery

Owen uses biblical parallelism to draw precise connections between Christ's crucifixion and soldiers' experiences. The poem's tight quatrain structure mimics traditional religious verse, but subverts expectations through its brutal, matter-of-fact language.

Key linguistic moves include transforming disciples into soldiers who 'bear with Him' and reimagining Golgotha as a war-torn landscape. This technique allows Owen to expose the profound spiritual bankruptcy of institutionalized violence.