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Introduction and Preface

• The Introduction is written by C. Day Lewis, who explains that while Owen was a competent poet before the beginning of World War I, he seemed to mature almost immediately under the stress of combat.

• Lewis maintains that Owen was the most important poet for Lewis's generation to have come from the war. Lewis gives a brief biography of Owen, who was born to middle class parents in Oswestry, England in 1893.

• Owen's parents were close to the arts, leading him to be well read for his age and background. He was very close to his mother in his youth, and his letters to her are most common.

• Owen's early writings reveal great dissatisfaction with a life common to many adolescents.
• In 1911, Owen left home to attend London University. However, money was short, so Owen became an assistant to a vicar, and studied for the priesthood...

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