Roger Waters' Direct Reference to Wilfred Owen's 'The Send-Off' in 'The Gunner's Dream'

Roger Waters has often cited Wilfred Owen as a key lyrical influence, especially on The Final Cut, an album that wrestles with war trauma, absurd authority, and the inner life of a shell-shocked veteran. He didn’t just absorb the tone—he borrowed a line. In “The Gunner’s Dream,” Waters sings “the merciful face of the window pane,” which is a direct paraphrase of Owen’s “the unwindowed, windowed pane” from his 1918 poem “The Send-Off.”

That poem describes soldiers being shipped to the front, their train windows giving a false sense of safety as they leave.