Walking is a great way to contemplate and remember and in November each year it is ‘sweet and fitting’ to take a Literary Hitchhike with a Remembrance theme.

Wilfred Owen

For this Remembrance walk in the south Oxfordshire Chilterns, we have chosen as our principal literary subject one of our most celebrated Great War Poets, Wilfred Owen. Owen witnessed firsthand the harsh reality and carnage of war - his ‘poetry of witness’ is uncompromising work, steeped in pity and fury, the pen exploding with purpose as it is pushed across the paper.

Wilfred Owen was awarded the MC for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty but, like so many, he died young on the fields of France. He was killed at the age of 25 on November 4, 1918 while attempting to lead his men across the Sambre-Oise canal at Ors, just one week before the Armistice.

Our literary hitchhike starts in the village of Binfield Heath in the south Oxfordshire Chilterns. From here we head out over the fields, following historic ways, to explore the small village of Dunsden where, in 1911 at the age of 18, Wilfred Owen had come to live and work as the lay assistant to the Vicar of All Saints church.

No Glory in War

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Before leaving Binfield Heath, however, let us divert to another literary subject, Alfred, Lord Tennyson. He was a regular visitor to the area and in June 1850 married Emily Sellwood in the nearby parish church above the Thames at Shiplake.

Tennyson, of course, is known for his narrative poem about the fateful Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854). He was inspired to write the poem after reading an account of the event in The Times. This work, written some six score years before the Great War of Owen’s time, emphasises patriotism, war and nationalism, projecting war as a glorifying chapter of a nation’s history.

In stark contrast, there was no glory in war for Owen. His poetry reflects his own intense experience of the full horrors and futility of ‘modern’ warfare and his literary depictions of relentless trauma and inhumanity are often seen as a direct attack on the patriotic fervour.

The Latin phrase above is the title of a poem by Wilfred Owen. The title is ironic. The full phrase Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori – or the “old Lie”, as Owen describes it in the final lines of his poem – is a quotation from the Odes of the Roman poet Horace; it means “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”. The phrase was often quoted at the time and generally understood by the populace.

Owen, however, stressed that his poetry was not about heroes, or lands, or glory, honour, majesty or power; his poetry was about ‘War, and the pity of War, The Poetry is in the Pity’ (July 1918).

Owen also believed that his role as a poet was to be truthful and warn others who had no direct experience of war, in the vein hope that further conflicts might be avoided.

All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful.

Time to walk on…

…over the fields and along historic ways, passing as we go a number of pretty thatched cottages. As part of his lay duties while in Dunsden, Owen would tend to the poor, many of whom would be living in these cottages (cottages which today are highly desirable residences with a price tag to match!).

In one of his many his letters, Owen refers to one such cottage as the ‘stone box with the straw lid’ and he speaks of “the crazy, evil-smelling huts of the poor” with a genuine compassion for the people who lived there:

'... a gentle little girl of five, fast sinking under Consumption--contracted after chicken-pox. Isn't it pitiable ... the Father is permanently out of work, and the Mother I fancy half starving for the sake of four children. This, I suppose, is only a typical case: one of many Cases! O hard word! How it savours of rigid, frigid professionalism! How it suggests smooth and polished, formal, labelled, mechanical callousness!' (23 March, 1912)

The Poet Laureate C. Day Lewis noted that the powerful 'indignant compassion' for suffering humanity that permeates many of Owen’s greatest poems could be traced, not to his experiences on the Western Front but to the time in Dunsden.

Dunsden

Our walk takes us past the Old Vicarage where Owen had lived during his time at Dunsden. He struggled to cope with the lavish lifestyle at the vicarage when there was so much poverty and suffering in the local community which he served.

During his short time here he started to hone his skills as a poet, inspired by the work of Keats and Shelly. However, it was a later meeting with another Great War Poet, Siegfried Sassoon, which helped Owen to express his own experience of tragedy and to develop the strong thematic cause of his poetry.

We amble on to the small picturesque All Saints Church. Wilfred Owen’s parents (Tom and Susan) and sister (Mary) lie buried in the graveyard and inside the church is a plaque commemorating his short life.

Leaving the church, a track then leads us on to Dunsden village green where we find a helpful Wilfred Owen interpretation board. The old Mission Hall where Owen spent much of his time has long since gone but the old village well still stands proudly on the green. Although mains water was available in the parish from 1906, the well would still have in use during Owen’s time here and he would have familiar with its importance to village life. It is wells such as these, perhaps even this very one, that Owen refers to in the closing lines in his poem The Send-Off (Poems, 1921):

“– A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,
May walk back, silent, to their village wells,
Up half-known roads.”

Just across the road from the village green is the old school, now the Village Hall. Owen had been secretary to the school board and, from his letters, he enjoyed being there:

‘On Friday afternoon, I was also in a pleasure-vein; spending an hour and a half in the School. I made a careful inspection of the drawings, dealt out the usual supply of encouraging praise, and found the usual merriment in the dunces’ work; tigers, for instance, which looked like your slavey’s old boots… ‘ (16th March 1912)

If you are lucky, you may be able to see in the foyer the sculpture of Owen by Anthony Padgett - pictured above (it is sometimes on display in the church where we had been fortunate to see it).

An octopus of sucking clay

We leave the green to make our way along Tag Lane back towards Binfield Heath. Tag Lane is, in part, a muddy track which we generally prefer to avoid in the wet winter months - it crosses a thick pocket of sucking clay which sits atop the chalk rock of the Chilterns and gives rise to springs and ponds. However, rather than bemoan our own fate as we squelched our way through the next few hundred meters, we sought to reflect upon the awful conditions endured by those serving in the trenches.

In letters he wrote home to his mother, Owen vividly explained how the mud of the Western Front was making itself manifest, inundating his sleeping bag and his pyjamas. In one letter he wrote:

…the ground was not mud, not sloppy mud, but an octopus of sucking clay, 3, 4, and 5 feet deep, relieved only by craters full of water. Men have been known to drown in them. Many stuck in the mud & only got out by leaving their waders, equipment and in some cases their clothes.

No one could escape the mud. In his poem ‘Apologia pro Poemate Meo’, Owen tells us:

“I, too, saw God through mud
— The mud that cracked on cheeks when wretches smiled. ”

An English Village in War-time

As we return to Binfield Heath, we turn our attention away from the intensity of the battlefields to contemplate the more benign home village life during the Second World War, as recorded by Thomas B Scotcher in An English Village in War-time (War Time) | The War Efforts of Binfield Heath (Oxfordshire).

The Preface reads:

'This little book has been compiled and written by an evacuee who came amongst us in 1940 from the London area. It is a simple, personal and homely story of the war efforts of Binfield Heath, typifying through those who are mentioned the war work of the village as a whole.’

Scotcher speaks of the welcome received from the villagers and of their ‘massive War effort’ and determination shown. He considers noteworthy the fundraising for the benefit of Service men and women, the focus of such activity being the annual Gymkhana and Flower Show. The Flower Show remains central to village activities and continues to raise funds for the British Legion. Sadly, this 2020 year, the Show, like so many other events, has fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic. Let us hope that the villagers show the same determination to ensure that the Show continues as part of village life and to support our Service men and women.

Reflect and Remember…

Wilfred Owen's work leaves us with an enduring sense of the tragedy of war. The Great War had been hailed as ‘the war to end all wars’ but Owen, in his poem The Next War, prophesises a future that he knows will be further troubled with war and conflict. Our need to reflect and remember, and to support our Service men and women, will remain…

Learn More…

The walk is one of our expanding collection of ‘Literary Hitchhikes’. If you would like to experience this walk, or a similar literature inspired journey on foot, please get in touch. We would love to hear from you!