Anthem for doomed youth

• Anthem for Doomed Youth

  joyous song of celebration's juxtaposed by sorrow

  foreshadows young's loss of hope

  assonance - intended to sound long, melancholic
• die as cattle'


  simile

  slaughter connotation - inhuman, lead to slaughter w no emotion - treated like animal - multitude of deaths

  naive - don't understand consequences
• monstrous anger of guns' 'passing-bells'

  personification - 'monstrous' wild & uncontrollable destruction from guns - connotates evil

  contrast - instead of honoring dead, more are killed by same weapon w/o proper remembrance
• only'


  anaphora - only things they have is noise - emphasises loneliness, loss of value

  repetition - monotonous tone

  Owen wrote poem whilst in hospital suffering from shell shock - obvious why depicts this tone of anger at futility of war
• pallor of girls' brows'

  only remembrance is others grieving - no coffin

  affects lives of loved ones
• sonnet


  adds touch of irony - often for romantic poems - juxtaposes serious content of poem - uncomfortable - sonnets are beautiful, war is not
• context


  - fought in WW1

  - died 4 days before the end of the war
• form of the poem

  - written as a sonnet because they are generally about love and this one shocks us because it is about war not love

  - by writing a sonnet, Wilfred Owen is giving the soldiers respect and paying tribute to the men when no one else will
• poets message


  - aimed at those who send young men to fight to make them feel guilt but also to people now to prevent this happening again
• first stanza rhythm and rhyme

  - the first stanza follows an AB rhyme scheme but it doesn't follow a regular rhythm which is structured deliberately to make the reader feel uneasy as warfare surely would
• second stanza rhythm and rhyme


  - written in regular iambic pentameter which suggest predictability and is good for showing respect as it is measured and a steady rhythm all except the last line

  - the last line of the second stanza has more syllables to slow down the line as the sadness of the people left behind will go into eternity

  - rhyming couplet to close the poem gives it a sense of finality
• first stanza tone


  - bitter and accusatory as demonstrated in the question- 'what passing-bells for these who die as cattle?'

  - the men who risk their lives and deserve the most respect are being given the least
• monstrous anger of the guns./ Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle'

  - use of alliteration and harsh sounds, 'stuttering' has sibilance which allows you to hear the gunfire

  - use of stuttering is onomatopoeia

  - major emotion is anger
• The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;'

  - cacophony of sound is quite scary to the reader

  - shriek as the shells travel through the air before exploding

  - the singing that would normally be at their funeral has been replaced by 'demented' noises as there is no dignity in the way they die
• What candles may be held to speed them all?'

  - we move from the way to the soldiers homes and deals with the consequences for those left at home not at war

  - the lack of harsh sounds make this a lot calmer and there are many gentle, liquid sibilance sounds
• Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.'


  - regular iambic pentameter

  - 'shine' and 'glimmer' are all references to light and aspects of life that are calm
• flowers' and 'tenderness'


  - although they are seen as 'cattle' to warmongers, they are angelic to Owen

  - although it is much calmer it is sorrowful and mentions all of the things that soldiers will not get at their funeral because their bodies will never return home
• And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.'


  - every night when the girls draw their blinds they will be reminded that they lost someone they love

  - people would close the curtains as a mark of respect when someone died

  the only respect that the soldiers will get is the tears and memories of those who lived them
• Structure


  sonnet form - pay respect and tribute, ABBACC scheme - finality of death in couplet
• Context


  WWI funerals were formal contrasts to chaotic nature of descriptions in poem
• 1


  Futility of war

  'anthem' in title - semantic field of religion (soldiers died with religion & god failed them) 'doomed youth' in title oxymoron - pessimism vs hope and life - fate of men in vivid way & youth is collective - lack of individuality & large number - pointless, collective 'cattle' of men - number of deaths - doesn't achieve anything, anaphora 'only' to talk about soldiers' tributes - lack of care & respect - frustration, enjambment movement - flow of bullets - continuous cycle - highly destructive of many men
• 2


  Lack of tribute for soldiers' deaths

  repetition negatives, eg 'no' - lack of respect, 'demented choirs' oxymoron of sound of bombs- devil vs grace and god - chaotic imagery of mad atmosphere without sanctity of life/respect, onomatopoeic 'wailing shells' disturbing verb - madness causes more grief - baby crying innocence, sound imagery as bugles are 'calling' instrument plays Last Post for dead soldiers back home - vivid imagery bridges octet into sestet with the need for this tribute
• 3


  Grief, loss of death

  tears in 'their eyes' upsetting imager - extent of grief for brothers/sons of soldiers who died without respect - left with only the memory (no formal tribute), sisters/daughters share 'pallour' of skin - paleness - shock & extent of bereavement - reader remembers their pain which becomes 'pall' for coffin (cloth to go over it) - their grief which is the remembrance, drawing of 'blinds' metaphor for finality of each families' situation with loss of soldier without any respect - plural - number of people affected - intensity of grief
• Keywords


  Owen's pov in frustrated tone - more intense, critical of lack of tribute & war, sonnet, physical conflict, rhyming, elegy for young soldiers died in battle without tribute