"1914" is a sonnet by the British poet and soldier Wilfred Owen about the outbreak of World War I. The poem laments the destructiveness of war and compares the rise and fall of Western civilization to the progression of the seasons. WWI has thrust the world into a dark winter, the speaker says, and it's unclear whether a new spring will follow—that is, if civilization can be renewed. Owen was killed in action at the age of 25 in 1918, just before the war's end. "1914" was published posthumously.
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The Full Text of “1914”
1War broke: and now the Winter of the world
2With perishing great darkness closes in.
3The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
4Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
5Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
6Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
7Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.
8The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.
9For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
10And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
11An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
12A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
13But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
14Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.
The Full Text of “1914”
1War broke: and now the Winter of the world
2With perishing great darkness closes in.
3The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
4Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
5Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
6Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
7Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.
8The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.
9For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
10And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
11An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
12A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
13But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
14Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.
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“1914” Summary
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“1914” Themes
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The Total Destruction of War
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Societal Collapse, Renewal, and Sacrifice
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “1914”
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Lines 1-2
War broke: and now the Winter of the world
With perishing great darkness closes in. -
Lines 3-5
The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
Rending the sails of progress. -
Lines 5-8
Rent or furled
Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.
The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled. -
Lines 9-10
For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome, -
Lines 11-12
An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
A slow grand age, and rich with all increase. -
Lines 13-14
But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.
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“1914” Symbols
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The Seasons
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The Tornado
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“1914” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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Assonance
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Extended Metaphor
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Allusion
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Metaphor
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Personification
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Caesura
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Juxtaposition
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“1914” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- War
- Winter
- Perishing
- Whirled
- Rending
- Rent
- Furled
- Art's
- Ensigns
- Verse
- Thin
- Down-hurled
- Harvest home
- Sowings
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “1914”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“1914” Speaker
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“1914” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “1914”
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More “1914” Resources
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External Resources
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Owen's Life and Work — A short biography of Wilfred Owen.
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Wilfred Owen: A Remembrance Tale — A BBC Documentary about Owen's life and work.
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The Poetry of World War I — A sampling of poetry inspired by the Great War.
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Drafts of "1914" — Manuscript versions of the poem from Oxford's digital archive of First World War poetry.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Wilfred Owen
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