Summarise and explain the key elements of Hospital Barge by Wilfred Owen

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Summarise and explain the key elements of Hospital Barge by Wilfred Owen

Spring 1917 held a few pleasant memories for Wilfred Owen, but it was almost certainly a poem of Tennyson’s that, the following December, brought back a recollection of one of them. Now based in Scarborough, he re-read the famous legend of the death of Arthur, how the king was borne in a "dusky barge" accompanied by "three queens with crowns of gold", bound for "the island valley of Avilion". So, on 8th December he completed the first draft of HOSPITAL BARGE, and on a proud occasion in June 1918 it became, along, one of the few poems to be published in his lifetime (in THE NATION). It may not number among his finest, but in the context of his war experiences, HOSPITAL BARGE remains unique.

It focuses on an incident during his convalescence in May 1917 at, a village on the Somme Canal (later No. 41 Stationary Hospital). This particular hot afternoon he and a fellow patient went on a barge trip towards Cerisy, an occasion he was to reconstruct in sonnet form, describing in the octet the slow progress of the barge, and in the sestet his reflections as by an observer on the bank.

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He had convalesced at Gailly once before (after he had fallen down a well near Le Quesnoy). "We are by a Canal" he told sister Mary on 25th March, "much used by the Army." (It was used to bring up supplies and take back the wounded to Amiens). "It looks funny to see a Sergeant Major commanding a Tug, and a Corporal at the helm of the barge. A pleasant life for khaki. Why doesn’t Harold (his brother in the Navy) try it?" Six weeks later he was back, writing on 10th May :

I sailed in a steam-tug about 6 miles ...

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