{
 "id": "wilfred-owen/disabled",
 "title": "Disabled",
 "poet": "Wilfred Owen",
 "poet_slug": "wilfred-owen",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 22,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1920,
  "venue": "Poems (1920)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsowenwil00owenrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1034"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/wilfred-owen_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1034",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100547417"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 45,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Voices of play and pleasure after day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "About this time Town used to swing so gay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—In the old times, before he threw away his knees.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now he will never feel again how slim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Girls’ waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All of them touch him like some queer disease.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There was an artist silly for his face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For it was younger than his youth, last year.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now he is old; his back will never brace;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’s lost his colour very far from here,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One time he liked a bloodsmear down his leg,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After the matches carried shoulder-high.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It was after football, when he’d drunk a peg,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He thought he’d better join. He wonders why⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Someone had said he’d look a god in kilts.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That’s why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He asked to join. He didn’t have to beg;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Germans he scarcely thought of; and no fears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only a solemn man who brought him fruits",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now, he will spend a few sick years in Institutes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And do what things the rules consider wise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And take whatever pity they may dole.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To-night he noticed how the women’s eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How cold and late it is! Why don’t they come",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And put him into bed? Why don’t they come?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}