With an Identity Disc is a poem written by English poet Wilfred Owen. The poem was drafted on 23 March 1917.
The style of the poem is a sonnet. The name of the poem stems from identity discs that British soldiers wore around their necks during the First World War. The discs were used as evidence for a soldiers death . This poem is influenced by William Shakespeare's Sonnet 104 first two lines; To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I ey'd and John Keats' poem 'When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be'.[1]
On the night of 14/15 of March 1917, Owen received a concussion after a fall at Le Quesnoy-en-Santerre. On the same night he was evacuated to a Military Hospital at Nesle. On the 17th of March, Owen was moved to 13th Casualty Clearing Station at Gailly.[2] While recovering, Owen sent a letter to his younger brother Colin,
Owen sent the poem to Colin but Owen revised it six months later at Craiglockhart.[3] The Poem was finalised in August–September 1917.[4]