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This poem is one of the most haunting indictments of the First World War ever written. Wilfred Owen was a British infantry officer during the war, and was killed one week before the armistice. In the poem he takes the traditional biblical story of Abram and Isaac, and uses it as a vehicle to describe his feelings about the nature of the war itself. The poem begins as The Bible story does, with Abram preparing his son Isaac for sacrifice as God commanded. But Owen then twists the tale, by making the place of sacrifice the Western Front: Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps, and builded parapets and trenches there, Then an angel appears, telling Abram to sacrifice instead a Ram, the Ram of Pride. But Abram does not obey: But the old man would not so, but slew his son, And half the seed of Europe, one by one. Owen clearly uses Abram to represent the governments of Europe involved in the conflict, and Isaac the youth of those countries who actually fought the war. The governments chose not to end the war by sacrificing their pride. Instead, they went ahead and wiped out a generation.

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Q: What does 'the parable of the old man and the young' mean?
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