Wilfred Owen, son of Tom and Susan Owen, was born in Shropshire, England on March 18, 1893. He was the eldest of four children.
An undistinguished student at school, Owen eventually passed the London University Matriculation Exam, but not being from a wealthy family he was unable to fulfil his deep desire to go up to University. Rather, he took an unpaid position as a lay-assistant and pupil to the Reverend Herbert Wingham at Dunsden, Oxfordshire. Owen left Dunsden in 1913 and moved back to his family home in Torquay where he spent some time convalescing from a lung condition. He unsuccessfully attempted to gain a scholarship to attend University College, Reading, and instead travelled abroad to teach English at the Berlitz School of Languages in Bordeaux from September 1913 to July 1914.
With the putbreak of World War, Owen soon signed on for military service in October 1915. By January 1917 he was shipped to the Frontline in France and after a battle in April he was sent home suffering from Shell Shock. 
It was during his recovery in Craiglockhart Hospital, Edinburgh that Owen called upon his vivid memories of his war experiences to compose the majority of his works known collectively as his ‘War Poems'. September 1918 saw the young poet once again returned to battle in France and on November 4, 1819 at the age of just 25, Owen was killed in combat - just seven days before the signing of Armistice.
Though Owen had little in the way of formal academic training, he was profoundly interested in all areas of literature and devoured any and all writing at his disposal, declaring at a young age that it was his heart's desire to become a poet. His early writings consisted mostly of letters written to his mother, who kept them and later published them in an attempt to advance her son's work. One can only consider her efforts a success with some 673 known letters extant today. These letters were full of literary allusions and quotations and in themselves point to a profound appreciation and understanding of literary technique on Owen's part.
As Owen's writing interests turn to poetry we can see a clear influence by the Romantic Poets: Men such as Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats, but it was the latter who had the most dramatic influence on Owen's life and work. It has been said that Owen's devotion to Keats bordered on ‘hero worship', and that he was drawn by the rich sensuality and recognisably ‘poetic' style of his verse, characteristics which inevitably found their reflection in Owen's many ‘War Poems'.
A further significant influence on Owen and his poetry was his acquaintance, whilst in hospital in Edinburgh, with poet Siegfried Sassoon. Whilst some of Owen's latter poetry is written (with varying levels of success) in the more colloquial and satirical style of Sassoon, it was the poet's criticism and encouragement that was to have most influence on the younger man. Whilst Sassoon was largely unimpressed with much of Owen's earlier works, he showed much greater approval of his later efforts. This praise served as a great encouragement to Owen who responded with a greater commitment to his own work.
While Wilfred Owen did produce many poems prior to the outbreak of the war, it is predominantly those classified as his ‘War Poems' which have attained lasting literary merit. These works clearly reflect Owen's own changing attitude towards the war from the early pre-war hysteria that swept Britain, through to a vivid display of patriotism and emerging finally in a poignant disillusionment reflected in his graphic portrayal of the pain, horror and waste of war.