Significance of the Title of the poem Strange Meeting

 Significance of the Title of the poem Strange Meeting

The title of a literary work gives the first clue about its central theme. Wilfred Owen was a great English war poet of the First World War. His poem Strange Meeting was written in 1918 and published in 1919 after his death. The title Strange Meeting is very striking and meaningful. It prepares the reader for an unusual event. As the poem unfolds, we realize that every aspect of this meeting is strange—its setting, the two people involved, their conversation, and the final revelation.

First, the place of the meeting is very strange. Usually, two people meet in a house, on a street, or in a public garden. But in this poem, the meeting takes place in a deep, dark underground tunnel. The speaker escapes from the noisy battlefield and goes down into this gloomy place. Soon, he discovers that this sullen hall is actually Hell. It is not an ordinary meeting between two living persons in the real world. Instead, it is an encounter between two dead souls in the underworld. This makes the meeting eerie, mysterious, and supernatural.

Second, the two participants make the encounter deeply unusual. On the upper ground, in the real war, these two men belonged to two opposing armies. They were sworn enemies whose job was to kill each other. But in this dark hall, their identities change completely. There are no national flags, no uniforms, and no military ranks. The dead stranger rises and lifts his hands not to fight, but as if to bless the narrator. The speaker even calls him a "strange friend." The traditional hostility of war vanishes in the realm of death.

Third, their conversation is full of unexpected depth and sadness. In a normal war setting, enemies shout in anger or show deep hatred. But here, the two men talk like old companions and fellow thinkers. The dead soldier talks about his lost dreams, unlived years, and love for art and truth. He laments that he could not tell humanity about the true cruelty of war. Both soldiers share the same grief and the same broken hopes. This deep emotional connection between two strangers makes the meeting completely different from a standard wartime encounter.

Fourth, the strangeness reaches its highest point at the climax of the poem. The dead stranger reveals his true identity to the narrator. He says, "I am the enemy you killed, my friend."The narrator had stabbed and killed this very man with his bayonet only the previous day. Yet, the victim shows no anger or desire for revenge. Instead, he addresses his killer as his "friend." He forgives him and invites him to rest together, saying, "Let us sleep now." This sudden turn from violence to mutual forgiveness is the most shocking and strange moment of the poem.

The word "strange" does not simply mean odd or surprising. It points to a profound moral truth that goes against ordinary wartime logic. War forces innocent young men to hate and slaughter one another for political reasons. However, in the afterlife, all artificial hatred melts away, leaving behind only shared human suffering and brotherhood. Wilfred Owen cleverly uses this title to expose the utter senselessness and pity of war. Therefore, the title Strange Meeting is completely apt, suggestive, and deeply successful.