The poems “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen and “The Bright Lights of Sarajevo” by Tony Harrison both give the readers an insight into what life is like around the incident of a major conflict. “Disabled” highlights how the life of a soldier is changed before and after being enlisted in the war, in this case, WWI, and sustaining a major injury; meanwhile, in “The Bright Lights of Sarajevo” Harrison chooses to focus on the lives of people with the conflict in full force around them. This perspective gives the reader a better idea of what life is like during a war and helps them to empathize with the people of Sarajevo as it is easy to compare and contrast their situation with your own life. In “Disabled”, the perspective is detached as the narrative is an onlooking view on a traumatized and nostalgic young man embroiled in his immature decision to enrol in the army. This also generates sympathy from the reader as the reasons of the man enlisting are brought out to be cultural and societal pressures, which shows that he didn’t consider or possibly didn’t know the full effect of what he was signing up to.
Both poem titles are meaningful in terms of the idea of conflict and serve as a foundation for the rest of the poem to build on. “Disabled” has the obvious connotation of a physical impairment such as the one suffered by the soldier being “legless, sewn short at the elbow”. It could also mean that there could be the presence of a mental impairment which you could argue to be in this case PTSD from his flashback to the “hot race” or depression from him having potentially suicidal thoughts “waiting for dark” which is mentioned in the very first line of the poem. This suggests that there are multiple angles to the soldier’s disability and it is not just one-dimensional. This could be alluding to how society, in general, didn’t understand how to look after the wounded in the 1910s and they only acted on what “things the rules consider wise”. “Disabled” also means a mechanism that does not work anymore. This could show how the soldier was not considered human and shows that Owen may think that those in charge were those responsible for the scale of tragedy demonstrated. On the other hand the phrase “The Bright Light of Sarajevo” also gives a preview to the contents of the poem. Sarajevo instantly has connotations of war and deprivation from the Bosnian War of 1992-95. Since this is a fairly recent event, many of the readers may well remember this conflict and were alive when it happened. This same effect won’t be demonstrated with “Disabled” since there are far fewer people who lived at the time of the first world war. This title also creates intrigue through “The Bright Lights”. The idea of “Bright Lights” brings connotations of hope, guidance, and goodness. It also could be a reference to how light combats darkness, similar to how peace outshines war. This creates interest from the reader as there should not be any shining lights in such a metaphorically dark and desolate place such as Sarajevo. The definite article “the” makes the reader wonder what is it about these specific bright lights that make them so special with them being so out of place in the midst of a raging battle.
The poems both use the third person primarily to narrate the poems, this makes the poem seem detached and distant. By not including personal opinions and expressions the poets minimise bias in their recollection of events which is significant as war is often a very polarising subject, with many contrasting perspectives. This creates the effect that the authors are suggesting there is no side that is right or wrong but we are all human and that war is fundamentally futile and pointless. Owen uses verbs such as “threw away” and “poured” to suggest that the soldier intentionally injured himself which is the opposite of what he signed up to and is meant to do which is to injure the “Germans”. Owen achieves a similar effect in his poem by saying that in the absence of light, something that we all take for granted, “you can’t distinguish between who calls bread hjleb or hleb or kruh”. This suggests that such a small difference, one that occurs every day, instantly makes it impossible for a conflict to occur as the difference between the Sarajevans is so small and this makes the reader question what is the reason for this conflict to be fought and could be hinting to the harmonious past once experienced by the people of Sarajevo. This is built upon with Harrison referring to the boy and girl as “dark shape” which shows that even he can’t tell the difference between them. There is also the repetition of “bread” which is extremely popular and a staple food for a lot of people around the world. This leads to it having connotations of life, sustenance, and survival. There could also be the religious connotation of the last supper and how a major teaching in Christianity is to love and treat others as you would treat yourself which is what is not happening in the poem in Sarajevo. The scale of deprivation and desperation is shown by the Sarajevans “queuing” for “precious meagre grams” of bread. A very valuable commodity such as gold or silver is weighed in grams which is ironic as this is referring to bread which is very common and cheap. This has the effect of showing how war has an impact on what people consider valuable and drastically alters their needs and wants. Harrison in “Disabled” also switches to the first person when describing the boy courting the girl. The reason for this could be to highlight the contrast between the situation of these two youth and the situation of Sarajevo as a whole. He states “I think” as if he is not sure if this is truly happening and is questioning himself.
The poem “Disabled” is made up of seven stanzas which are irregular in length. This is to reflect the memory of the man and show that he remembers some parts of his story better than others and how some areas were more painful for him. The penultimate stanza is the shortest in length and reflects the contents of the stanza which reflects on how only a “solemn man” thanked him and his reception was not as “crowds cheer goal”. “Solemn” means serious and is often on display at funerals and other sad events. This is ironic as the young man returning home would be a happy occasion as he was “drafted out with drums and cheers”. The idea of funerals could also mean that the young man’s former self has almost died which is reflected as he describes that “half his lifetime lapsed” while in the war and how he “lost his colour” which could mean life in this context. The football reference reflects on how in his past life he was celebrated for being an accomplished player more than he is on returning from war. This is ironic as he went to war due to pressure from society and his desire to have a respected status. It is mentioned that someone said the soldier would “look a god in kilts” and he signed up to “please the giddy jilts”. A “jilt” is a woman who rejects a lover, this reflects how after he is injured the women he tried to impress by going to the war “passed from him” and “touch him like some queer disease”. Owen could also be making a larger point here in how disabled people are outcasts from society simply because of their condition were as before they may have been very popular. The structure in “The Bright Lights of Sarajevo” is made up of three stanzas. Two of them are longer and similar in length. However, the last one is much shorter. It is about the boy and the girl sharing a coffee. It contains caring language such as “share”, “candlelit” and “holds in her hand”. This shows that there may be a glimmer of hope for Sarajevo which is reflected in the length of the stanza. However, Harrison dampens this feeling by reminding the reader of the war through “curfew” and “flour sacks refilled with sand”. This shows that while you are in Sarajevo or any war for that matter it is impossible to truly escape the conflict. In this example, something that was intended to help the people affected by the conflict, flour sacks likely to be used to make bread, is now being repurposed to further the conflict.