OCTOBER 1917 – JANUARY 1918REVISED APRIL 1918

Insensibility – Wilfred Owen

Today’s Aims and Outcomes

To work together to explore the possible meanings in the poem by considering language and what it may signify;

To gain an effective understanding of the poem, its context, structure, language and possible meanings;

To begin to make connections between this poem and Strange Meeting;

To begin to identify techniques in Owen’s poetic form and style.

Learning Task

In pairs, look up the title word, ‘insensibility’ and list all the possible meanings and then discuss and note down what these may signify in terms of the context of the war and what we may consider to be Owen’s purposes.

Also note down what you think the poem may be about if we just take the title into consideration.

We will revisit your ideas later to see how accurate your predictions were...

Take one stanza each..

Read through the stanza you are given.Then note down what you think the most

important words are and what they signify – why do you think Owen has used these language choices?

Then justify why the stanza deserves to be in the poem – what does your stanza bring to the poem?

What is the overall message and how does this compare to Strange Meeting?

Write a list of brief comparative points between Insensibility and Strange Meeting:

What/where are the similarities?

What /where are the differences?

Remember to consider structure, use of pararhyme etc., not just meaning...

What could the title of the poem signify?

INSENSIBILITY adj.

Imperceptible; inappreciable: an insensible change in temperature.

Very small or gradual: insensible movement. Having lost consciousness, especially temporarily; unconscious:

lay insensible where he had fallen. Not invested with sensation; inanimate: insensible clay. Devoid of physical sensation or the power to react, as to pain or

cold; numb. Unaware; unmindful: I am not insensible of your concern. Not emotionally responsive; indifferent: insensible to criticism. Lacking meaning; unintelligible.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin īnsēnsibilis, imperceivable : in-, not; see in–1 + sēnsibilis, perceptible; see sensible.]

Independent Learning Task

Use your notes to write a comparative essay:

A comparative study of A comparative study of Strange Meeting Strange Meeting and and Insensibility, Insensibility, commenting on Owen’s commenting on Owen’s purposes and the language and poetic purposes and the language and poetic devices used to achieve these.devices used to achieve these.

This will be your first graded/assessed piece. Due next Weds – approx 1-2 sides of A4.