What passing bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifle's rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers, nor bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells, And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes, Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall, Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each, slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.

Robert Graves and Sacheverell Sitwell (who also personally knew him) have stated Owen was homosexual and homoeroticism is a central element in much of Owen's poetry. Literary output
Only five of Owen's poems were publiWilfred Owend before his death one in fragmentary form. Whilst at Craiglockhart he made friends in Edinburgh's artistic and literary circles and did some teaching at the Tynecastle High School in a poor area of the city.

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier one of the leading poets of the First World War. His shocking realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon and stood in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke.