Summary for Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen
Anthem
for Doomed Youth
- Wilfred
Owen
Anthem
for Doomed Youth was one of Owen’s most famous poem
written in 1917. This poem addresses million dead and people who are about to
die. It is written in a sonnet form. This poem is a lamentation for Youngman
illustrated as “cattle in the war”.
This poem is in the form of questions and answers. What buried ceremonies are appropriate for those who die in the war. The answer is that the sands of battle are the appropriate form of mourning. They function as the worthless lament. The brutality of war seems to deny Christian ritual – the pastor “Hasty Orisons” of church prayers are a greater mockery of the sacrifice the soldier makes than the sound of the guns.
Thus, each musical part of a funeral
or memorial service is replaced by booming guns, for bells, repeated rifle
shots of mechanically uttered prayers, wailing shells for choirs. But there is a
lamentation in the fact that they are buried far from home “the sad shines”
leading into the concluding sestet which deal not with sounds of mourning at
home who have been denied a funeral ceremony in the presence of their families.
The whole poem also stands as a lament for the soldier’s lonely death and for
the fact that they are denied proper burials. The images of the sestet are of
the silent sufferings of their family and the place. Tears glimmering in the mourner’s
eyes will be candles in church.
The pale faces of the men’s sweet
hearts will be their funeral cloths and their grave side flowers the tender
thought of those who have patiently waited for their return from the war. The strength
of the poem lies in those who have patiently waited for their return from the
war. The strength of the poem lies in those images which are aptly and justly
chosen to suggest the horror of war, the inadequacy of religion and the
validity of love and dream. It has a greater comparison and respect for human
relationships than Owen’s poem “ greater love”
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