ANTHEM FOR

DOOMED YOUTH

By Wilfred Owen`
 Themes
✓ The horror of war and the terrible
conditions facing soldiers, even after
they have died.
✓ The futility, meaninglessness and
inadequacy of religion in response to
such horror as seen during war.
✓ Senseless devastation of war
 Tone
• The poem begins in a mood of bitterness
and irony,
• but as the focus shifts from the battlefield
to the home front, from the immediate
setting of mechanized warfare to the
distant calm of civilian life,
• the mood shifts toward sadness and
regret.
•
(Anthem usually positive tone)
 STRUCTURE
❖ Italian sonnet (14 lines)
❖ Octave: brutality of war
❖ Dominated by the sound of battle
❖ Sestet: requiem for the dead
❖ Characterised by muted grief
❖ In order to expose the horror and tragedy
of death on the battlefield, the poet has
created a parody of a civilian battlefield.
❖ The sustained metaphor emphasises the
difference between death in peacetime and
death on the battlefield.
TITLE - Anthem for doomed
youth
 Anthem: hymn of praise which usually
commemorates or praises a person or group
 Song of praise for young men (doomed youth) who
give their lives in battle for their country/cause.
 Doomed: implies that they have been condemned
to die and have very little chance of survival
(WW1)
 Youth: not usually associated with death. Ironic.
 The anthem does not materialise as we are led by
the poet into battlefield to hear the sounds of war,
rather than the music of a memorial service.
 Assonance gives an ominous tone
 Simile
1. What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
(Rhetorical question)

 What sign / signal will be sounded to mark the death of the

soldiers?
 Simile: Manner in which soldiers die is compared to the
mass slaughter of animals
 Nameless and faceless they die brutally in the chaos of war

 “passing bells” - Slow, solemn tolling of

bells
 Ironically contrasted with unfeeling slaughter
of cattle
 A custom in England dating back many
centuries was to ring a bell when a person was
dying. Those who heard it were to pray that
the person's soul would pass on to the light of
heaven when he or she died—hence, the term
passing bell.
2. Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
(Personification)

 This is the answer to the previous question: No bells, just

guns for the soldiers
 Monstrous: Connection of anger and horror; Loud sound;
portrays the anger of war.
 “Anger of guns” – anger of enemy soldiers is transferred to
their weapons.; Guns are reflecting feelings of soldiers;
expressing their anger.
 Personification

3. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Alliteration

onomatopoeia
4 . Can patter out their hasty orisons.
 Alliteration and onomatopoeia imitate the sound of guns –
harsh, forceful and repetitive
 “t” – imitate short, hard sounds of bullets being fired
 “r” – suggests how rapidly and frequently shots were fired

 Sounds replace prayers (orisons) normally at deathbed or

funeral.
 The noises lead to their death
 No time for prayer on the battlefield when someone dies –
uttered hastily
 Young men who die in war are not treated with dignity and
respect they deserve
 Ceremonies would be insults to
them. It would be a mockery to
pray for the dead while
continuing to kill

5. No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,

Traditional funeral rites. Their dying

moments are empty as they are utterly
alone in death.

 No need for traditional funeral for

soldiers, because their deaths are so
meaningless that conventional
prayers, bells and choirs would be a
mockery.
 No voice to express sorrow or Dash reinforces the
regret irony:

6. Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs —

The only choirs the soldiers have are

the shrill whine of shells.
 High-pitched. With shrill – mad
Connotation of horrific cacophony of
something sound on battlefield
uncomfortable,
unpleasant
7. The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; ,

Personification: ironic that the killers

(bombs) are also personified as
mourners

 The chaos of cannons and guns

replaces the usual choir at civilian
funeral.
 The futility of warfare is insane, and
something that drives soldiers mad.
 Small trumpet used to mark time of day
in barracks. Also sounded in battle to
retreat. Reference to calling up even
more doomed young men to war.
Sounded at funerals.
8. And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
Reference to places the soldiers come
from. Emotions so overwhelming that
it seems as if the whole country is
grieving
 TONE: In contrast with
rest of octave there is a
gentleness and regret.
 Slow and quiet last line
of the octave prepares
us for a more subdued
tone in the sestet.
• Candles lit in churches to remember loved ones.
• Candles held by altar boys.
• At funeral a candle is sign of hope and of an afterlife.
• Symbolic farewell to dead

9. What candles may be held to speed them all?

.
To send off with good
wishes

 Rhetorical question with tone of bitterness.

 What candles will be lit for the soldiers to
symbolically show them the way into the
next world?
 The sestet develops the idea of comparing a
right and fitting death to a death in war –
without ceremony, without traditional rites,
without dignity
10. Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
11. Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
Candles compared to small glimmers of
light in eyes of soldiers

 Instead of candles to send them to the afterlife, the soldiers

simply have the last flickers of light in their eyes before they
die.
 Can also refer to tears in the eyes of dying soldiers
 Holy – associated with God and prayer, unlike the hideous
slaughter of war
 12. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall
Cloth placed over coffin; usually
black (in contrast with pale
faces), sometimes flag.
pale

 Link between pallor and pall achieved through PUN and

ALLITERATION
 These soldiers will not have cloth over their coffins – not even
proper burial
 Absent pall is metaphorically replaced with the grief of the girls
at home.
 “girls” – indirect reminder of extreme youth of those involved
in war
13. Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

Tribute to the dead; a mark of respect

A thing of beauty contrasting with the horror of death

 There will be no flowers for these

men like at a normal funeral.
 METAPHOR: the thoughts of the
grieving loved ones are compared
to the flowers at the funeral. In
the place of flowers, there will be
people thinking about them –
tender loving memories
 14. And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Alliteration: slows down rhythm; atmosphere of stillness and

despair.
Creates mood of grieving and
pain; those left behind are Double metaphor
reluctant to accept death of
loved one

 ALLITERATION: Slows down the rhythm and creates

atmosphere of dull stillness and death coming to a close.
Despair and mourning that prevails at dead soldiers’ homes.

 DOUBLE METAPHOR:
 Dusk draws the curtains on a passing day
 Death draws the curtains on life
 Traditionally blinds are drawn when someone dies – sign to
world and mark of respect
 Instead of blinds being drawn around dead person, the
dead soldiers on the battlefield will only have the day to
draw to a close. Dusk would naturally darken the place
where they lay.
 It is as if nature itself is also drawing the blind and
mourning the young men’s deaths.
 Also refer to behind-the-scenes suffering of loved ones.
 General Notes
 No signs of patriotism in the ideal of “dying for one’s country” in this
poem.
 Not limited to specific country.
 Deliberate condemnation of war in general.
 Sonnet form – carefully controlled comparison between a civilian
funeral and harsh death of soldiers on battlefield.
 In the poem, the noise of battle gives way to silent grief.
 PEACE TIME wAR TIME

Traditional
funeral/Religious Death on the Battlefield
ceremoniesReligio
us ceremonies "Doomed youth"
"Anthem"
Gunfire
Church bells announcing death

Prayers for the Rapid rifle fire

deceased
"demented choirs of wailing shells"
Choirs singing hymns bombs screaming through the air

Candles held by altar Light of the sky reflected in dead

boys soldier's unclosed eyes

Velvet cloth (pall) to cover Pale, mourning faces of young girls

coffin
Flowers Kind, mourning thoughts of loved ones

Drawing down of blinds

out of respect and Each slow dusk falling on the battlefield
mourning (sunset)