1914

• Who?


  Third person with the use of one personal pronoun "us". This makes the speaker very detached from the war itself and in places quite pompous.
• What?


  A factual and historical account of the war with a patriotic viewpoint. The first stanza, the octet, talks of the current state of the world in war whereas the second stanza, the sestet, celebrates the glory of the empires that have come before us and how sacrifice is necessary to keep the British Empire alive.
• How?


  It is in the sonnet form with a conventional ABBA ABBA ABBA CC rhyme scheme and it typically sticks to iambic meter, only lines 5 and 7 break this. By not deviating from the norm it suggests his attitudes at the time and his patriotic leanings as an outsider to the world of war. His use of an extended metaphor for the seasons reflects the Keatsian notion of the "redemptive cycles of nature" and in this case, the inevitability of war.
• Why?


  The war has effected Owen as an outsider but he has not had to endure any suffering therefore, it is a complete contrast to his other poems due to its patriotic undertones.
• Title


  1914 was the start of the war. Owen didn't join until 1916 which explains the patriotic attitudes of this poem.
• Theme of Patriotism


  "Spring had bloomed in early Greece and Summer blazed her glory out with Rome"

  "A slow grand age, and rich with all increase"

  "But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed"
• Theme of Propaganda


  "Perishing great darkness closes in"

  "The foul tornado, centred at Berlin, is all over the width of Europe whirled, rending the sails of progress"

  "Rent or furled are all Art's ensigns"

  "Verse wails"

  "Now begin famines of thought and feeling"

  "Love wine's thin. The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled"
• What is the tone of the poem?

  Authoritative, factual, historical, patriotic, grandiose and pompous.
• What notion is reflected throughout the poem?

  The "redemptive cycle of nature" a Keatsian idea which is reflected through the extended metaphor of nature making war seem inevitable and progressive.