Owen, being a Soilder in World War 1, and experiencing many horrific outcomes that came along, was also a writer and used his knowledge of war for his poetry. His creativity mainly began after recovering from shellshock in hospital, where he had possibly met others in the same position as him, or worse. Owen had seen much through the time of war, and expressed his feelings and thoughts of this through his poetry. He was also influenced by other poets such as Rupert Brooke. Owen’s melancholic poem ‘Disabled’ explores the results and the pity of war, describing the story of a young man as easily fooled by the propaganda as everyone else and lives the consequences of the act of going to war underaged. He returns with nothing but regret and reflects on the past. Losing his limbs and becoming disabled has changed his life in numerous ways and he has become bitter of gaining nothing for his actions.
One of the ways in which Owen conveys the ‘pity of war’ in the first stanza, is creating an eerie atmosphere in the beginning of the poem. He describes the man as ‘sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark and shivered in his ghastly suit of grey.' The immediate appearance of 'dark', 'grey', and 'shivered' reveals the isolation of the wounded soldier. The alliteration of ‘his ghastly suit of grey’ expresses how even the soldier’s clothes gives off a dullness that surrounds him. Whilst the solider is sitting in his wheelchair, he also hears the ‘voices of boy’s rang saddening like a hymn, voices of play and pleasures after day’. The alliteration of play and pleasures emphasises how he wishes to join them and be part of their fun, yet can no longer experience that again. The ‘voices’ of happiness of the children almost seems unpleasant to him as they ‘rang saddening like a hymn’ This has religious connotations and again, a reminiscent of death and perhaps his desire for it.