"The Unreturning" by Wilfred Owen (Happy Halloween!)

I thought I might take the pleasure in dedicating this blog post to the fast-approaching holiday, Halloween! What better way to do so than with the discussion of a completely Halloween-appropriate, creepy, and haunting poem? Thus, in honor of the scariest night of the year, I have chosen the poem, “The Unreturning,” by Wilfred Owen. This eerie poem contains an abundance of frightening imagery and spine-chilling literary devices that render it quite suitable for Halloween.

On that note, Owen’s spooky poem begins with a strange description of the night as it “crushed out the day and hurled her remnants over cloud-peaks, thunder-walled” (1-2), clearly implying the extent to which the night seemingly viciously and violently conquers the clearly vulnerable day. Owen’s use of the words “crushed” and “hurled” evoke a sense of ferociousness and cruelty in its connotation as he personifies the night and its act of aggressiveness towards the daytime, which has a positive and cheerful connotation.  In addition to this blunt contrast between night and day, Owen goes on to say that a “stillness such as harks appalled when far-gone dead return upon the world” fell upon the dead of night (3-4). This chilling line suggests that perhaps the dead are bound to return in the dead of night, which seems to be foreshadowed by the stillness of the night.

Thus, Owen intensifies the terrifying nature of this scene as it says “there watched I for the Dead; but no ghost woke” (5), introducing us to the narrator, who seems to anticipate the rise of the Dead. The poem delves into the narrator’s perspective, in which the narrator remarks that “each one whom Life exiled I named and called. But they were all too far, or dumbed or thrilled, and never one fared back to me or spoke” (6-8).  The voiceless dead and the emptiness that fills the poet echo the desolation that the narrator internally feels as he calls out the names of the dead, but they remain unresponsive. The narrator’s seemingly despondent and longing nature exhibits the inherent desire that the narrator has in calling out to the dead. However, I can’t seem to understand why he summons the dead, and why are they uncommunicative and silent? Also, what interest does he have in those “whom Life exiled”? I can only assume that the narrator himself feels abandoned and forgotten by Life itself, thus, he seeks comfort in the Dead, who have also endured a similar sense of neglect and abandonment. However, the dead are out of reach for the narrator, they cannot answer his call of what seems to be desperation.

Nevertheless, Owen goes on to depict this thought that clouds the narrator’s mind when “then peered the indefinite unshapen dawn with vacant gloaming, sad as half-lit minds” (9-10), clearly undermining the narrator’s certainty. The hesitant and looming dawn that creeps up almost mirrors the narrator’s state of mind. The narrator seems to be conflicted with the thought of Death and eternal damnation as he questions “the weak-limned hour when sick men’s sighs are drained” and he wonders “on their being withdrawn, gagged by the smothering Wing which none unbinds, I dreaded even a heaven with doors so chained” (11-14). This last stanza is extremely powerful as it reveals Owen’s pessimistic views on life and death and what they each entail. He describes the voice of man as being “gagged” and smothered as if despair, sorrow, and misery are inevitable in darkness and even in light, which he conveys as a “heaven with doors so chained” (14).