Wilfred Owen: Poems

"Forheads of men have bled where no wounds were"-explain the line from Wilcfred Owen's "Strange Meeting"

why does the"Foreheads of men have bled" though there were "no wounds"?

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There are several meanings here since this meeting is taking place in hell and "the enemy" tells about what he would have been willing to give to the narrator. He says that his death was not through a wound in the forehead, but rather he was killed with some kind of body wound. However, the men who fight in war may lose their lives and thus "bled" because of no wound in the forehead, but rather because their thoughts are so negative. The wound is definitely figurative as is the mention of the lack of blood - there is blood in the sense that the war has drained the lifeblood from the people who are fighting.