ANTHEM FOR THE DOOMED YOUTH
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
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.
· STRUCTURE: Petrarchan sonnet- the use of this structure is an irony as sonnets are usually used in poems based on the theme of love.
· Octet-sounds in war, weapons of war and religious imagery.
· Sestet-families of soldiers who dies in the war.
· The poem shows the horrors of war and how unfortunate it is to die in the war.
· Owen wrote this poem while he was in the hospital recovering from shell shock.
· Title: paradox (explained). Doomed youth can also be an oxymoron as youth implies bright and cheerful but doomed implies no hope.
· The events of war are compared to religious burial rituals. People who die in war, do not receive proper funerals. Usually, at funerals there are bells ringing and prayers being said, but Owen shows that in wars, there are only the sounds of guns.
· Comparisons made: church bells-noise of gun fire; prayers- rattling of rifle; choirs-wailing of shells.
· In the last stanza, Owen describes the families’ reactions to finding that their loved ones have died. The dead soldiers do not get to be honoured by their family and friends. All the family can do is grieve at their sorrowful news. By this, Owen shows how depressing the war is.
· Tone: strong anger at the futility of the war.