The Full Text of “The Next War”
War's a joke for me and you,
Wile we know such dreams are true.
- Siegfried Sassoon
1Out there, we've walked quite friendly up to Death;
2Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland,—
3Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.
4We've sniffed the green thick odour of his breath,—
5Our eyes wept, but our courage didn't writhe.
6He's spat at us with bullets and he's coughed
7Shrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft;
8We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.
9Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
10We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
11No soldier's paid to kick against his powers.
12We laughed, knowing that better men would come,
13And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags
14He wars on Death—for lives; not men—for flags.
The Full Text of “The Next War”
War's a joke for me and you,
Wile we know such dreams are true.
- Siegfried Sassoon
1Out there, we've walked quite friendly up to Death;
2Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland,—
3Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.
4We've sniffed the green thick odour of his breath,—
5Our eyes wept, but our courage didn't writhe.
6He's spat at us with bullets and he's coughed
7Shrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft;
8We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.
9Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
10We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
11No soldier's paid to kick against his powers.
12We laughed, knowing that better men would come,
13And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags
14He wars on Death—for lives; not men—for flags.
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“The Next War” Introduction
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"The Next War" is a sonnet written in 1917 by British poet and World War I soldier Wilfred Owen, while he was being treated for shell shock (now referred to as posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD) at Craiglockhart Hospital. In the poem, Owen conveys the psychological horrors of war as well as his cynicism about its aims and effectiveness. Owen believed that rather than saving lives or furthering glorious, patriotic causes, wars only caused more death and led to future violence. Thus, although Owen wrote the poem in the form a traditional sonnet, the poem challenges traditional notions regarding the patriotism and glory of war.
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“The Next War” Summary
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"The Next War" begins with an epigraph from Siegfried Sassoon's poem "A Letter Home." The speaker of "A Letter Home" irreverently declares that war is insignificant for the speaker and the reader, both of whom believe that their hopeful dreams of rebirth and regeneration will triumph over the bleakness of war.
The speaker, a nameless soldier, states that he and other soldiers have been intimate with a personified Death in war. In fact, the soldiers have even sat and eaten their meals with Death. Moreover, the soldiers treated Death's presence beside them as normal and unremarkable. The soldiers forgave Death when he spilled their containers of food into their hands. The soldiers have also been so physically close to Death as to smell his repulsive breath, which is green and thick like poison gas. The soldiers' eyes have watered at Death's bad breath, but they've remained unafraid of him. Death has also attacked the soldiers by expelling bullets and shrapnel through his body. Nevertheless, the soldiers continued to serve as a chorus for Death's song. The soldiers even whistled while Death, figured as the Grim Reaper, cut them down with a scythe.
Death, the speaker exclaims, was never the soldiers' real enemy. Indeed, the soldiers laughed at Death and were friendly allies with him. Countries, after all, do not pay their soldiers to fight against Death. The soldiers laughed as they knew that other soldiers, better than them, would continue to arrive on the battlefield of bigger, future wars. Some prideful soldiers may brag that they fight against Death in order to save more lives. In reality, soldiers are only fighting for national interests that have nothing to do with them.
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“The Next War” Themes
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War and Death
In “The Next War,” a soldier describes his and his fellow soldiers’ relationship to a personified Death. Death is a constant presence in the soldiers’ lives, to the point that the soldiers treat Death like an “old chum”—a term that one might use to refer fondly to an old friend. Through this, the poem underscores the immense horror of war—in which something as terrible and fearsome as death is so common, so inescapable, that it becomes a familiar, intimate companion.
Death surrounds the solders in the poem—when they eat, rest, and, of course, when they enter the battlefield. Yet familiar though he may be, Death’s remains rather repulsive and threatening throughout. Death is so physically close to the soldiers that they are even able to smell his breath, which has a disturbing “green thick odour.” This evokes images of chemical warfare, specifically poison gas.
This sense of gross intimacy is further underscored by the image of Death “spilling mess-tins,” spitting at the soldiers “with bullets,” and “cough[ing] / Shrapnel.” Despite seeming like a decrepit, sickly pal, however, the speaker insists that “Death was never enemy of ours,” and that the soldiers would laugh and play with Death.
The poem’s light-hearted tone creates a sense of irony meant to reflect how horrific and disturbing war really is. Indeed, the soldiers even “league” with Death. To “league” with someone is to become allies with them. The soldiers view Death as an ally on the same side of the war—which makes sense when considering that Death attacks the opposing army as well!
The transformation of Death into a friendly companion highlights the physical and psychological horrors of war for soldiers, who are forced into camaraderie with the most frightening “chum” of all.
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War and Patriotism
The poem’s speaker, a nameless soldier, implicitly questions the purpose of war. Soldiers, the speaker observes, do not fight against death itself, because war is not some heroic act undertaken to save the lives of one’s countrymen. Instead, the poem argues, war is fought “for flags.” In other words, war is waged on behalf of countries, governments, and national pride—vague, non-human entities that have little to do with the soldiers dying (and killing) on their behalf.
Through this idea, the poem rejects notions of war as something noble or patriotic. It further suggests that the sacrifices war requires are made in vain, because war will not bring about peace or safety; rather, it will just lead to, as the title suggests, the “next war.”
In order to make this point, the speaker first establishes war’s immense cost: its death toll. Death is so omnipresent in the soldiers’ lives that the speaker personifies it as capital-D Death, an intimate wartime friend. What’s more, the soldiers don’t fight against Death, but rather alongside him. To that end, the soldiers have “chorussed” when Death “sang.” To “chorus” is to sing and perform together as a group. Consequently, when the soldiers “chorus,” they are a supporting musical accompaniment to Death’s song, enhancing Death’s music.
Similarly, the soldiers have “whistled” even as Death cut them down “with his scythe.” This is an allusion to the image of Death as the Grim Reaper, a hooded figure holding a type of handheld blade used to cut crops (which the Grim Reaper uses to cut down the living). A scythe is often described as making a whistling sound when swung through the air. The whistlling of the soldiers, therefore, mirrors the whistlling of Death’s scythe, highlighting the similarities between Death and the soldiers. Both, the speaker suggests, cut down the living.
Soldiers are thus both victims and agents of death in war—an idea that helps puncture sanitized images of wartime glory and nobility by not letting the reader forget that soldiers are tasked with killing other human beings. As such, the soldiers are not “paid to kick against [Death’s] powers.” In other words, political leaders who pay soldiers to fight do not expect their soldiers to defeat death. Rather, political leaders expect their soldiers to kill enemy soldiers—or to die trying.
Political leaders and savvy soldiers, therefore, hold no illusions about the real purpose of war. Those who think otherwise seem foolish to the speaker, like “proud” braggarts who think they’re saving lives and don’t understand that they’re actually just fighting on behalf of a hollow symbol of national interests (a.k.a. that “flag”).
War also doesn’t lead to lasting peace or resolution in the poem. Indeed, the speaker and his fellow soldiers just laugh at the absurd knowledge that no matter what they do, other men will fight more wars in the future. The soldiers’ laughter is bleak and mocking, implying that the cycle of warfare is never-ending and pointless.
War, in the speaker's summation, is full of needless sacrifice, pointless death, and hollow causes. Political leaders might try to depict war as an act of patriotism and heroism. However, “The Next War” clearly refutes such idealization. The poem argues that wars, and therefore the soldiers who fight in them, do not save lives or provide resolutions to conflicts; rather, they only further a cycle of death.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Next War”
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Before Line 1
War's a joke for me and you,
Wile we know such dreams are true.
- Siegfried SassoonIn 1917, Owen was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital for shell shock (what would now be called posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD). There Owen encountered the poet Siegfried Sassoon. While they were both recuperating at the hospital, Owen often shared his poems with Sassoon, who was seven years Owen's senior. As a fellow soldier and poet, Sassoon became a friend and mentor figure to Owen, offering revisions of Owen's work and deeply influencing his poetic style.
"The Next War," written while Owen was at Craiglockhart, features the last two lines of Sassoon's poem, "A Letter Home," as an epigraph. Sassoon's poem, addressed to his friend and fellow poet Robert Graves, memorializes the death of a mutual friend who was killed in action. As the poem progresses, "A Letter Home" imagines their mutual friend's rebirth as a mythical figure.
"A Letter Home" has an irreverent attitude toward war. As the second to last line declares, war is "a joke" for Sassoon and Graves as they know their dreams of rebirth and regeneration will triumph over the darkness of war.
"The Next War" begins by borrowing this irreverent attitude toward war, specifically toward death. However, "A Letter Home" ends on a much more hopeful tone. Nevertheless, "A Letter Home" clearly influences "The Next War" in matters of tone and content. Both poems, ultimately, acknowledge the terrible loses of life that war brings about.
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Line 1
Out there, we've walked quite friendly up to Death;
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Lines 2-3
Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland,—
Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand. -
Lines 4-5
We've sniffed the green thick odour of his breath,—
Our eyes wept, but our courage didn't writhe. -
Lines 6-8
He's spat at us with bullets and he's coughed
Shrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft;
We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe. -
Lines 9-11
Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
No soldier's paid to kick against his powers. -
Lines 12-14
We laughed, knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags
He wars on Death—for lives; not men—for flags.
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“The Next War” Symbols
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Flags
A flag is a physical representation of a country and all that it stands for. A flag might be used to reaffirm a nation's power during times of peace or signal a nation's victory during times of war. As such, a flag often serves as a patriotic symbol. In "The Next War," however, a flag represents the hollowness of said patriotism and of the national interests used to justify war and death—interests that, the poem implies, have little concern for the soldiers actually on the ground and fighting on their behalf.
In the last two lines, the poem argues that fighting wars is not some noble act that saves the lives of one's fellow citizens. Rather, fighting wars on furthers the interests of governments and leaders far removed from those actually fighting. Flags are essentially just objects, the poem implies, making the loss done in their honor all the more striking. No flag, the poem argues, is worth the psychological toll or death caused by war.
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“The Next War” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Anaphora
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Personification
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Caesura
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Enjambment
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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Assonance
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Allusion
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Irony
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"The Next War" 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.
- Bland
- Mess-tins
- Odour
- Writhe
- Shrapnel
- Chorussed
- Scythe
- Leagued
- Old Chum
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Not expressing strong emotions. The soldiers do not show any strong fear or revulsion when sitting down and eating with Death. Rather, they treat his presence as unremarkable.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Next War”
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Form
"The Next War" is a sonnet. It actually combines two different types of sonnets. The first half of the poem is a Petrarchan sonnet, while the second half looks more like a Shakespearean sonnet. Both types are composed of 14 lines. But in a Petrarchan sonnet, the poem is divided into an eight-line octave followed by a six-line sestet. That octave itself is made up of two quatrains (four-line stanzas, here with ABBA rhyme schemes), and the sestet is made of two tercets (a.k.a. three-line stanzas). A Shakespearean sonnet, on the other hand, consists of three quatrains (with ABAB rhyme schemes, slightly different!) followed by a rhyming couplet.
This poem does have an octave made up of two quatrains and a seset. The octave follows the rules of a Petrarchan sonnet—it has two quatrains in the expected rhyme scheme—but the sestet here actually looks a lot more like a Shakespearean sonnet. Lines 9-12 are another quatrain, rather than the expected tercet, and have the ABAB rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet. Also like a Shakespearean sonnet, the poem ends in a final rhyming couplet. Owen thus uses a traditional form but puts a twist on it, reflecting his subversion of wartime patriotism. Mapped out, the form of the poem is as follows:
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Octet
- Quatrain
- Quatrain
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Sestet
- Quatrain
- Couplet
Traditionally, a sonnet establishes the poem's problem in the octet. The sestet then essentially responds to or answers the octet. In this poem, the octet establishes Death's omnipresence during war. The seset comments on this relationship by insisting that Death isn't actually the soldiers' enemy; they don't fight against Death, and as such aren't actually fighting to save lives. Instead, the final line asserts, fight "for flags"—that is, for symbols of national interests that don't have much to do with the reality on the ground.
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Octet
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Meter
"The Next War" is written in the form of a sonnet. As such, it follows the traditional meter of a sonnet: iambic pentameter. Each line is made up of five iambs, poetic feet with a da-DUM rhythm. Take line 8:
We whist- | led while | he shaved | us with | his scythe.
The speaker of "The Next War" is a nameless soldier who often expresses himself using casual terms ("old chum") and slang ("kick against"). The use of iambic pentameter is a fitting choice for the poem, as iambic meter closely resembles the rhythms of natural speech.
The meter remains fairly regular throughout the poem, suggesting the speaker's calm and collected demeanor. There are, however, moments of variation in the meter. Take, for example, line 3:
Pardoned | his spil- | ling mess- | tins in | our hand.
In this line, the soldiers forgive Death for spilling food. The line begins with a trochee (stressed-unstressed, DUM-da) rather than an iamb. This unexpected shift in meter mirrors the act of Death spilling food and thus disturbing the regularity of mealtime. Nevertheless, the meter quickly resumes its iambic meter, evoking the swift forgiveness of the soldiers and resumption of normalcy in their mealtime. The soldiers are so used to Death's various disturbances and attacks, that they view them as minor.
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Rhyme Scheme
"The Next War" combines the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet forms. The first eight lines, a.k.a. the octave, follow the rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet, while the final six lines follow the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet. Altogether, the rhyme scheme looks like this:
ABBACDDC EFEFGG
This transition between forms is interesting. At first, the poem seems to be playing along with the "rules," staying in line with an established form. The content, too, doesn't seem all that provocative at first, adhering as it does to traditional notions of soldiers' bravery in war and their fearlessness in the face of death. However, "The Next War" ultimately questions traditional notions of the nobility of war and the greatness of patriotism. The unorthodox mixture of rhyme schemes mirrors the unorthodox, challenging tone of the poem.
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“The Next War” Speaker
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The speaker of "The Next War" is a nameless soldier. It's possible that Owen, who fought (and died) in WWI, is the speaker himself. However, this is by no means definite. Indeed, Owen purposefully does not provide his speaker with any identifying features, such as a name or nationality. Moreover, the speaker refers to himself and his fellow soldiers with the collective "we." The soldier views his experience of war as a collective experience. The lack of specificity suggests that the speaker could be any soldier who has ever fought in war and, consequently, that the speaker's experience of war is universal.
The speaker and his fellow soldiers view Death as a close and intimate friend, suggesting just how deeply traumatized they've been by their wartime experiences. They are essentially numb to the constant presence of Death. The speaker and his fellow soldiers even assist Death and mirror his actions by causing more death. The speaker knows that Death is not the enemy and admits the futility of fighting against Death.
The speaker also openly challenges traditional ideas of the nobility of war and apparently holds no hope that war will cease existing. Rather, he believes that the cycle of warfare will continue, and that the "next war" will come soon enough.
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“The Next War” Setting
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The poem takes place during a war, though which one is never specified. The allusions to chlorine gas and mess-tins suggest that the setting is specifically WWI, which Owen himself fought in. The mention of bullets and shrapnel further hint that this at least a war of the modern era.
That said, the poem never reveals more specifics about where or when this war is being fought, and it never even says who the speaker fights for. As such, this war can be understood as representative of past, present, and future wars. War in general, the poem implies, is filled with horror and death.
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Next War”
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Literary Context
Wilfred Owen wrote "The Next War" in 1917, when he was being treated for shell shock at Craiglockhart War Hospital. It was also at this hospital that Owen befriended the older soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon, who soon become a mentor figure to Owen. Much of Owen's earlier work reflects Sassoon's stylistic evidence, as Sassoon frequently provided his advice and guidance on Owen's drafts.
Like many of Owen's other poems written during this period, "The Next War" confronts the realities that Owen personally experienced as a soldier in WWI, as well as his cynicism regarding warfare and the politics of the time. Indeed, many of the other poets during this time, including Sassoon, Robert Graves, and John McRae, also concerned themselves with the subject of war and sought to dismantle overly romantic and idealistic visions of warfare.
Owen often questioned traditional ideas regarding the nobility of warfare in his work, the stark reality and honesty of which had a lasting influence on Modernist literature, characterized by a break with beliefs of the past and confrontations with the grimness of reality. Later writers such as Philip Larkin ("An Arundel Tomb") have also cited Owen's work as an influence on their subject and style.
For an example of an entirely different kind of WWI poem, look to Jessie Pope's "Who's for the Game?"—the kind of ultra-patriotic, pro-war writing Owen sought to refute with poems like this one and "Dulce et Decorum Est."
Historical Context
In 1917, England was the midst of WWI, a global conflict that caused destruction and death on a scale never seen before. Some estimates place total amount of English deaths as a result of the war as over 1 million.
The war had a devastating effect globally, not only in terms of the total number of casualties, estimated to be 40 million, but also in terms of the development of industrial large-scale warfare. Poison gas, a kind of chemical warfare, was introduced on the battlefields of WWI. Shrapnel was also deployed with great frequency during the war.
WWI also caused devastating psychological effects upon soldiers. In 1915, English physician and psychologist Charles Myers first coined the term "shell shock" to describe the lingering effects of this psychological trauma; nowadays, this is referred to as posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Many soldiers—and indeed civilians—became disillusioned by the war as it dragged on for years. Even after the war ended, many felt that life could no longer return to the certainty and traditions that so comforted them in the past. Life—as well as literature—had been irrevocably affected and changed by the global conflict.
And, of course, this particular poem proved especially prescient in its certainty of "greater wars" in the future as, only about 20 years after its publication, World War II would begin.
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More “The Next War” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of the poem.
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Chemical War — Learn more about the history of chemical warfare, including the use of chlorine gas in WWI.
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BBC's "The Poetry of War" — Watch clips of BBC's program featuring Sam West as Wilfred Owen.
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The Poetry of World War I — Learn more from the Poetry Foundation.
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Who Was Wilfred Owen? — Learn more from the British Library.
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Sassoon's "A Letter Home" — Read the full poem that Owen quotes in his epigraph.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Wilfred Owen
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