7 - Anthem for Doomed Youth Flashcards
(12 cards)
What is the context of the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’?
Written by Wilfred Owen in 1917.
Reflects Owen’s own experiences as soldier in trenches of Western front.
Time of widespread disillusionment with war and its portrayal in propaganda.
Writes poems with first-hand experience of conflict and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Concern was to warn public of brutality of war and stress it was far from glorious and honourable.
Tragically, died 1 week before end of war, parents received news on 11th November 1918, as rest of world celebrated end of war.
What is the structure and form of the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’?
Both Octet and Sestet open with rhetorical questions, vividly explored in each.
Follows traditional sonnet structure.
Subverts traditional sonnet conventions to emphasis stark contrast between traditional funeral rites and harsh reality of war.
Traditionally in Petrarchan Sonnets, Octet presents issue/conflict and resolved in Sestet after Volta, however, speaker seems to suggest no resolution for soldiers, just unending suffering.
Poem fails to follow conventional rhyme scheme of Petrarchan Sonnet and instead uses rhyme scheme of Shakespearean Sonnet, Sonnet form has become somewhat distorted, perhaps been done to show how war distorts and ruins lives and rituals of men and society.
What are the main themes of the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’?
Remembrance
Death
Futility of war
Attitudes to conflict
Effects of conflict
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ for the theme of remembrance?
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Mametz Wood
Last Post
What Lips My Lips Have Kissed
Requiem for the Croppies
Easter Monday
Poppies
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ for the theme of death?
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Requiem for the Croppies
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Easter Monday
Vergissmeinnicht
Mametz Wood
Out of the Blue
The Man He Killed
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ for the theme of futility of war?
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Bayonet Charge
Mametz Wood
Last Post
The Man He Killed
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ for the theme of attitudes to conflict?
Who’s for the Game?
The Man He Killed
Bayonet Charge
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ for the theme of effects of conflict?
Mametz Wood
Bayonet Charge
Vergissmeinnicht
The Man He Killed
Poppies
What is the analysis for the title of the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’?
“Anthem” can be defined as rousing song or piece of music set to religious reading which sung by choir during some Christian services.
Double meaning used ironically by Owen as poem rejects rousing propaganda that glorified war, questioning usefulness of religious ceremonies when soldiers die.
Poem could represent Owen’s rejection of Christian faith as depicts funeral ceremony re-enacted on battlefield.
‘Anthem’ - something shared by group, Owen suggests young men involved in war inevitably going to share same fate.
‘Doomed’ - Owen suggests there is little hope for men surviving the war.
‘Youth’ - Owen makes young men’s futile death seem more poignant, metaphorically men will be robbed of their youth.
What is the analysis for stanza 1 of the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’?
Throughout poem, clear that men don’t get send off they deserve. Constant juxtaposition between traditional send off for dead and what soldiers actually receive illustrates this.
Octet uses present tense throughout, creating sense of immediacy and vividness when depicting brutality of war.
‘What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?’ - speaker angry that, in death, soldiers receive no dignity or respect.
‘…these who die as cattle?’ - vague pronoun dehumanises soldiers, speaker seems to criticise view that lives of soldiers are worthless and meaningless.
‘…who die as cattle?’ - simile reinforces mass, merciless slaughter that characterises lives of soldiers in war, further dehumanised men and illustrates how have no control over own lives.
‘Only the…’ - anaphora highlights how men don’t receive dignified, traditional send-off after death. Left to linger in horrors of war and deaths ultimately meaningless, no religious significance.
‘…monstrous anger of the guns’ - personfication of guns clearly conveys hostile and dangerous surroundings in trenches.
‘…stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle’ - harsh consonance, alliteration and assonance vividly evoke brutal sounds of guns, chaotic and nightmarish reality of war highlighted.
‘Can patter out their hasty orisons’ - enjambment quickens pace, conveys frantic nature of war and inhumane deaths soldiers face.
‘…hasty orisons’ - adjective illustrates how no time to properly remember men, by suggesting prayers have to be quick, speaker reinforces amount of people being killed.
‘No mockeries now for them’ - speaker condemns religious practices for having no positive impact on men in war.
‘…nor prayers nor bells, nor any voice…’ - repetition reinforces how soldiers denied right of traditional, ceremonial goodbye, speaker also suggests futility of religion in such brutal circumstances.
‘Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs’ - no one will grieve for fallen men in war, suggest viewed as replaceable and dispensable.
Caesura slows pace and enables chaotic sounds to saturate poem.
‘…demented choirs of wailing shells’ - metaphor, weapons seem deranged, screaming makes sound like in pain too.
‘And bugles calling for them…’ - personification, longing for men to return, reinforces distance between men and homes.
What is the analysis for stanza 2 of the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’?
Sestet shifts from present to future tense to focus on future mourning of those lost.
Slow pace throughout demonstrates soldiers’ loved ones will have to endure painful and prolonged grieving process.
‘What candles…’ - light imagery creates sense of warmth and comfort, only to brutally remind readers that these positive features have all been extinguished by war.
‘What candles may be held to speed them all?’ - rhetorical question emphasises speaker’s frustration with undignified end that soldiers meet and how aren’t properly remembered.
‘ it in the hands of boys…’ - choice of word not only reference to altar boys, it reminds us of youth, innocence and wasted life potential of soldiers.
‘..but in their eyes’ - speaker gives expression to fear and anxiety of soldiers as meet their deaths.
‘Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes’ - sibilance evokes sound of soldiers crying, overwhelmed feeling of grief, loss and fear brings tears to their eyes.
‘…glimmer of goodbyes’ - alliterative “g” sounds help vividly convey soldiers’ lifeless eyes as die.
‘…pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall’ - plosive sounds reinforce outpouring of grief and reminds readers that suffering relatives those left behind by war.
‘…pallor of girls’’ - reference to loved ones painfully highlights how potential for long, promising life with someone else now gone.
‘…pallor of girls’ brows…’ - not only soldiers, but loved ones who suffer painful emotional trauma.
‘Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds’ - part of families pain is knowing won’t be able to properly mourn or grieve for fallen loved ones.
‘…each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds’ - pathetic fallacy, darkness reinforces misery and grief felt.
‘…each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds’ - traditional mark of respect and remembrance (blinds of home being drawn down) denied to fallen soldiers. All receive cover of night, but dark imagery suggests soldiers will ultimately be abandoned and forgotten in minds of some.
What is the content meaning and purpose of the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’?
Serves as scathing critique of inadequate and empty rituals of remembrance for soldiers who die in war.
Owen aims to challenge romanticised perceptions of war and highlight its devastating consequences on both soldiers and society.
Describes death of soldiers on battlefield, comparing sound of guns, shells and bombs to bells and choirs of churches back home, highlighting cruelty of church and state, who conspire to send these men to die.
