View source for The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

{{Short description|Poem by Wilfred Owen published 1920}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Quote box
| quote = <poem>So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an Angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
</poem>
| title = The Parable of the Old Man and the Young
| fontsize = 100% }}

"'''The Parable of the Old Man and the Young'''" is a poem by [[Wilfred Owen]] that compares the ascent of [[Abraham]] to Mount [[Moriah]] and his [[Binding of Isaac|near-sacrifice of Isaac]] there with the start of [[World War I]]. It had first been published by [[Siegfried Sassoon]] in 1920 with the title "The Parable of the Old Man and the Young", without the last line: "And half the seed of Europe, one by one".<ref>[http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Poems_%28Wilfred_Owen%29 Yale University, The Modernism Lab]</ref> The poem is an allusion to a story in the [[Bible]], [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 22:1-18.

==Overview==
In the poem, the biblical patriarch Abraham (significantly called by his former name, Abram, in the poem) takes [[Isaac]]—his only begotten son by his wife [[Sarah]]—with him to make a sacrificial offering to God. The offering, though Isaac does not know this, is to be Isaac himself. "Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps", which suggests imagery relating to a young soldier being sent, possibly against his will, in a uniform to fight.  When he makes to sacrifice his son, an [[angel]] calls from heaven, and tells Abram not to harm Isaac. Instead, he must offer the "Ram of Pride". Then the last two lines of the poem diverge from the Biblical account, set apart for greater effect: "But the old man would not so, but slew his son, / and half the seed of Europe, one by one."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://poets.org/poem/parable-old-man-and-young|title=The Parable of the Old Man and the Young by Wilfred Owen|website=poets.org|access-date=2021-04-07}}</ref>

"The Parable of the Old Man and the Young" is written loosely in [[iambic pentameter]]. It does not use traditional rhyme; instead, the lines are bound together by [[assonance]], [[literary consonance|consonance]], and [[alliteration]].{{or|date=February 2024}}

As the title mentions, the poem is a [[parable]]. It is generally accepted{{weasel inline|date=February 2024}} that the old man, Abram, represents the European nations or more probably their [[government]]s. Another less common opinion{{whom|date=February 2024}} is that he represents [[Germany]] or [[Kaiser Wilhelm II]], whom some would claim started the war. However, Owen does not blame any individual nation or person in any of his other poems, so there is no reason to believe that he does so in this one. Rather, he condemns all those in power who took their countries to war.{{or|date=February 2024}}

According to the poem, the rulers of Europe believed that sacrificing their nations' (Ram of) Pride was too high a price, yet the irony is that the real cost of this Pride was millions of dead—the seed of Europe.

The last two lines are the only ones that rhyme, and the image they paint is chilling{{opinion|date=February 2024}}: an old man methodically killing the seed of Europe. It is mainly the power of this image, set out in the poem and culminating in the last two lines, that makes it haunting.

The poem is among those set in the ''[[War Requiem]]'' of [[Benjamin Britten]].{{cn|date=February 2024}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikisourcepar|The Parable of the Old Man and the Young}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20031204212150/http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/jtap/ Owen Digital Archive].
* [[s:Bible (King James)/Genesis|The Book of Genesis]]
{{Wilfred Owen}}

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[[Category:World War I poems]]
[[Category:Poems published posthumously]]
[[Category:Poetry by Wilfred Owen]]