Spring Offensive

About this book

‘Spring Offensive’ by Wilfred Owen, an anti-war poem, portrays how a group of soldiers embraced the cold breast of death having no way out. Whereas, some of them managed to escape the death-route. The title of the poem, ‘Spring Offensive’ is a reference to the Kaiser’s Battle of 1918. The consecutive attacks of Germans on the Western Front during the First World War are collectively called Spring Offensive. Here, “offensive” means a “military attack”. From the title, it becomes clear Wilfred Owen presents an episode of Spring Offensive in this poem. Moreover, the use of imagery and symbolism in the poem help readers to imagine what happened on the actual battlefield.