The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
2. Poem published: October 1917 3.
Facts about Wilfred Owen: ; Wilfred Edward Salter Owen (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War.
His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily Influenced by his friend Siegfried Swanson and stood in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time, and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are “Dulcet et Decorum Est”, “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility” and “Strange Meeting”.
4. Physical analysis: word count: 1 12; Patriarchal sonnet- related to the structure of the poem, we can say this poem is a variation of the Elizabeth sonnet. Owen has divided to the fourteen lines of this sonnet into two stanzas, the break coming at the end of the line 8. As is the case with the Elizabethan sonnet this poem has ten syllables of Iambic Pentameters, because here are five feet, and each foot contains a short syllables followed a long one.
Topic: die in war 6. Theme: the horror of war 7. Interpretation: Through “anthem for doomed youth” a well known patriarchal sonnet written by Wilfred Owen , the readers see the horrors of war and how unfortunate it is to die in war. Owen fought in world war I and wrote this poem while in a hospital recovering I OFF shows how does who die in a war do not receive the normal ceremonies that are used to honor the death. Owen was able to express how he felt about those who eased away while fighting in war, and he successfully communicates a moving message to his reader in “anthem for doomed youth”.
First, Owen relates to his audience how horrible going to war is. The title of Owen poem is “Anthem for doomed youth”. This meaningful title conveys a strong, gloomy feeling; usually an anthem is Joyous song of celebration but when it is coupled of “doomed youth”, Anthem takes on a whole new meaning that implies much sorrow. Also doomed youth provides a woeful impression because it foretells of young people having no hope. The first line of the poem described “the doomed youth” dying “as cattle”. This is description shows how awful war is.
The description depicts multitudes of people being slaughtered and the nature of war to be full of mass deaths. The simile is showing how the soldiers are not more important than the cattle which are lead the slaughter without feeling. Owen gives a sonnet a powerful, negative connotation from the very beginning. By using sonnet for the structure of his poem, Wilfred Owen introduces a touch of irony, because the conventional function of the sonnet is love, ND this poem is sort of anti-love, I mean the young soldier have to spend their time in trenches.
So their lives are wasted and, overall, the lives of their loved ones at home are also ruin. Furthermore Owen compares the events of war to traditional burial rituals and describes how those who die in war do not receive proper funeral. In the first stanza, Owen references the “monstrous anger of guns” to “passing bells” and “rifles’ rapid rattle” to “hasty orisons”. Usually at funerals or ceremonies for the dead there are bells ringing and prayers being said, but Owen shows that in war here are only the sounds of guns being fired.
In war instead of honoring those who have fallen, more are being killed by the same weapons. In the last stanza, Owen says “… But in their eyes shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall. ” Here Owen illustrates the families reactions to finding their loved ones have died. The died soldiers do not get to be honored by their family and friends, but all the families can do is grieve at the sorrowful news.
Owen communicates how depressing war is by making an effective comparison that the eaters can relate to. 8. Vocabulary: * Anthem – perhaps best known in the expression “The National Anthem;” also, an important religious song (often expressing Joy); here, perhaps, a solemn song of celebration * passing-bells – a bell tolled after someone’s death to announce the death to the world * patter out – rapidly speak * orisons – prayers, here funeral prayers * mockeries – ceremonies which are insults.
Here Owen seems to be suggesting that the Christian religion, with its loving God, can have nothing to do with the deaths of so many thousands of men * demented- raving mad bugles – a bugle is played at military funerals (sounding the last post) shires – English counties and countryside from which so many of the soldiers came * candles – church candles, or the candles lit in the room where a body lies in a coffin * pallor- paleness * dusk has a symbolic significance here tradition of drawing the blinds in a room where a dead person lies, as a sign to the world and as a mark of respect.
The coming of night is like the drawing down of blinds. 9. Poetic Devices: * Rhyme scheme: ABA CDC FEE/EGG. * Alliteration: rifles’ rapid rattle, sad shires, Shall shine, glimmers of good-byes, us a drawing-down, Their flowers the tenderness. * Repetition: “only the, only the” * Assonance: doomed youth, rapid rattle, no prayers nor bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, candles may be held, pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall, Their flowers the tenderness. Personification: by using personification, Owen makes the enemies’ guns seem evil and monstrous. Using personification pattern also is shown in “Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle”. This can cause the reader to feel some of the emotion felt in. * Simile: Throughout the poem, Wilfred Owen uses lot of comparisons, one of these is the simile between a typical funeral in a church and what would happen to a soldier killed in battle.
For example he compares the church bell with the noise of a gun-fire; the prayers with the rapid rifle fire; the choirs with the wailing of shells; the candle head by altar boys with the lights of the sky reflected in the dead eyes of the soldier. “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? ” is also simile pattern. * Two perspectives: The poem can be read in two parts- That in the first octet Owen makes a catalogue of the sound of war, the weapon f destructions such as “guns” (line 2), “riffles” (line 3), and “shells” (line 7), which are linked to religious imagery such as “orisons” (line 4),”bells” (line 5), “prayers” (line 5).
