Slides An Anthem For Doomed Youth

WAR POETRTY
An Anthem for Doomed Youth

By Wilfred Owen
Grade 9
T Alves
HI! I a m . . .
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on March 18,
1893, in Oswestry, on the Welsh border of Shropshire.
In November 1918 he was killed in action at the age of
25, one week before the Armistice.
He was a war-poet and an anti war activist.
Owen wrote vivid and terrifying poems about modern
warfare, depicting graphic scenes with honest
emotions; in doing so, young Owen helped to
advance poetry into the Modernist era.
In 1915 Owen was enlisted in the British army (ww1).
The experience of trench warfare brought him to
rapid maturity; the poems written after January 1917
are full of anger at war’s brutality, an elegiac pity for
“those who die as cattle,” and a rare descriptive power.
1. What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
2. Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
3. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
4. Can patter out their hasty orisons.
5. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
6. Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
7. The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
8. And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
9. What candles may be held to speed them all?
10. Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
11. Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
12. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
13. Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
14. And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
STRUCTURE
Reflects the form of Type:
a Shakespearean A lyric poem
sonnet (is a comparatively short, non-
narrative poem in which a
-14 lines single speaker presents a
-Rhyme scheme state of mind or an emotional
-Iambic Pentameter state.)
Elegy
Reflects the form of which means that it is a sad
poem written to express
an Italianan sonnet sorrow for someone's death
-Octave and sestet
TITLE
Assonance = “oo” sound
joining the two words.

Doomed = fatal Young = Innocents
Anthem = praise song War condemns young
/worship/country uses outcome/ominous. men to death. Owen
pride/national identity. criticizes the praising of
war.
Title = ironic because anthem is the exact opposite of doomed. (Highlights horror
and sacrifice.)
=Rights to proper funeral at a church was taken away for soldiers who died on the
battlefield.
2. Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Octave = appealing
3. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle to sight and hearing
4. Can patter out their hasty orisons. imagery of raging
5. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; battlefield.
6. Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, – Lots of imagery and
7. The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; Figures of Speech.
9. What candles may be held to speed them all?
10. Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes Sestet =
11. Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. less noisy. More silent
12. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; (show sadness) home
13. Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, front. Barely any
14. And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. imagery.
Church Peace War Chaos

LINE BY LINE ANALYSIS
Rhetorical Question &
Simile
“passing bells” are the bells used to
announcea death.
Imagery= The savagery and brutality of
war is reflected on in this image of
death. Word ‘cattle’ show how the men
had no control over their lives.
Like cattle, they were there to be
slaughtered.
2. Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Personification
Dehumanizing the soldiers and
humanizing the guns.
3. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Alliteration

Reflects the loud/violent sounds
of the battlefield. Weaponry.
Onomatopoeia
Dehumanizing the soldiers and
humanizing the guns cont.
4. Can patter out their hasty orisons.

5. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
“Tributes” (mockeries) at
home mean nothing =
no, no, nor (5&6)
6. Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
Juxtaposition & metaphor:

7. The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; Line 7 “choir of wailing
shells” (God’s world & the
devil’s both as one)

9. What candles may be held to speed them all? Rhetorical Question
Line 10 answers line 9: Tearful
eyes of soldiers last sight being
10. Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes the devastation of war.
Boys = youth (innocent)
11. Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. Line 9 -13 shows what
traditional rite is
replaced with.
12. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
13. Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, Dusk = finality &
mourning/ refusal of
public to see what is
happening.
14. And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Theme:
ANTI-WAR = Condemnation and wastefulness of war.
NATIONALISM = romanticism of war through deception

of pride for one’s country
Tone:
Octave = bitter, angry and ironic
Sestet = intense sadness and an endless feeling of emptiness.

Vocabulary:
See Pdf on TEAMS for vocab breakdown

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WAR POETRTY

An Anthem for Doomed Youth

An Anthem for Doomed Youth

Church Peace War Chaos

3. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Alliteration

4. Can patter out their hasty orisons.

6. Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –

Juxtaposition & metaphor:

8. And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

NATIONALISM = romanticism of war through deception

Sestet = intense sadness and an endless feeling of emptiness.

See Pdf on TEAMS for vocab breakdown

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