Anthem for a Doomed Youth

Anthem For A Doomed Youth

Author: Wilfred Owen

Context:

Wilfred Owen fought in WW1 and survived only to die one week before the war ended, and always wanted to be a poet. Nonetheless, he was never "famous" until "Anthem For A Doomed Youth". After experiencing constant shelling for 3 days he was diagnosed with Shell Shock. As a treatment, his doctor told him to write his experience, and hence "Anthem For A Doomed Youth" was born.

Subject Matter & Themes:

The poem is clearly anti war, with brief, yet coarse and lively descriptions. Moreover, its abrupt descriptions reach to the rawest emotions of the reader when describing how the men are slaughtered. The ongoing themes are mainly the indifference towards the dead, their funerals and death in overall. We come across with these themes mainly thanks to the constant contrasts Owen Wilson puts in the poem.

Point Of View/ Narrator:

Once again, the point of view of Owen is clearly anti-war, trying to show the reader really how horrible war is through his vivid and abrupt descriptions of slaughter. Furthermore, we can see he is clearly anti-war due to his contrasts of parodying the soldier's funeral with how a normal funeral should be. The narrator however is not a character he created, the narrator is omniscient, always present yet he is never revealed. Nevertheless, it seems the narrator could be Owen, as it is he who wants to show the horrible face of war.

Structure, Shape & Pattern:

For starters, the title is clearly ironic as Owen juxtaposes anthem, which is usually related to triumph and success, with doomed, which shows certain failure. This could mean he finds war to be ridiculous and blatantly stupid. The poem's structure is ABAB CDCD EFFE / GG. This poem is clearly a Sonnet which once more adds to the irony, as a sonnet was usually written for poems about love; however this one is about death. Furthermore, the poem contains several repetitions, most likely to represent how war is, slow and monotonous, running from one trench to another. Also, there is use of assonance in the title (doomed youth), which makes a long vowel sound, which could represent melancholy.

What is more, thanks to the use of onomatopoeias and personification he makes the reader think of the weapons as monstrous beings, with no remorse and with a thirst of blood. This adds to the overall idea of war being unnatural and absurd.

Language & Tone:

Owen is clearly an anti-war poet after the first hand experience of fighting in the trenches, he seems to portray pure anger against war and how futile and absurd it is, this can be seen