Wilfred Owen's Anthem for Doomed Youth Analysis Essay

Wilfred Owen, through his poems, shows the harsh reality of human conflict and contrasts the portrayal of these conflicts with the reality. Owen purpose is to challenges our thoughts and perspectives on war to show its true effects and stop the glorification that it receives in society. This can be seen in his poem Dulce et Decorum Est as he causing us to question whether it really is sweet and decorous to die for ones country by showing the reality of war through his personal experiences. These views can also be seen in the poem Anthem for Doomed Youth as Owen portrays the treatment the dead soldiers are receiving contrasted with the treatment a normal desist civilian would receive. This help to give the forgotten

I haven’t always loved poetry, but after reading poems that have such moving stories to tell it hasn’t been hard to grow a certain fondness for them. Poetry is the telling of stories from the creative and sometimes hauntingly realistic words of a poet. The world of poetry can be wonderful. It can also be saddening, exhilarating or wonderfully exciting and the most eloquent poems can leave anybody rewinding over the story of the poem for a time afterwards. Wilfred Owen was a poet who became well renowned after World War I where he unfortunately died in battle. Anthem for Doomed Youth (Anthem) and Dulce Et Decorum Est (Dulce) by Wilfred Owen both portray various themes including horrors of war, the futility of war and the pity and sadness of

War is not heroic. War is sickness, struggle, and death. This is the message that poet and World War I soldier Wilfred Owen wanted to instill in his people back home. Those back home talked of glory and national pride and rooted for their soldiers, however, they were unaware of the horrors these soldiers witnessed and experienced. The soldiers and their people back home were not only separated by distance but by mental barriers, which Owen showcases in his poetry. Owen’s use of personification in “Anthem for Doomed Youth” degrades the soldiers to objects to show how the war dehumanized them to intentionally create a disconnect between the audience and the soldiers.

Owen successfully evokes the ideas of truth in the poem “Dulce et Decorum est” the line “You would not believe with such high zest, to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie” through the use of metaphors and personification Owen demonstrates that the reality of the individual’s experience in war meant that they ended up challenging their sense of duty, their blind patriotism and understood that the true meaning of war is futile. The unimaginable suffering they lived through further highlights this reality. Also in the poem “Anthem for doomed youth” Owen explores the truth of war in the quote “Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.” Owen uses the technique of symbolism to link the glimmers of goodbyes to a funeral. Many soldiers did not receive proper funeral rights and were just buried in mass graves. Owen also shows the truth of war through the mortality of war in his oxymoronic approach of the colossal loss of life. Essentially Owen explores the truth of war through the themes of psychological scars and the horrors of

Wilfred Owen can be considered as one of the finest war poets of all times. His war poems, a collection of works composed between January 1917, when he was first sent to the Western Front, and November 1918, when he was killed in action, use a variety of poetic techniques to allow the reader to empathise with his world, situation, emotions and thoughts. The sonnet form, para-rhymes, ironic titles, voice, and various imagery used by Owen grasp the prominent central idea of the complete futility of war as well as explore underlying themes such as the massive waste of young lives, the horrors of war, the hopelessness of war and the loss of religion. These can be seen in the three poems, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and

The author of “Anthem for Doomed Youth” leads his reader through his personal struggle and frustration of war. Owen has an abrasive approach when describing the death all around him and clearly expresses his anger with the “hasty orisons” for the dead. He speaks directly of battlefront in the first octet and then includes the home front in the second half of his sonnet. Owen’s purpose is not a commemoration of fallen soldiers. Rather, he divulges the disgust and disappointment of war. Like McCrae, Wilfred Owen paints a picture of the multitude of deaths. Back at the home front, “…each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.” We can construe that the author is not simply talking about preparing for bed in the evening, but rather lowering the blinds in a room where yet another dead soldier lies, as an indication to the community and out of respect for the soldier. There is a lack of “passing-bells for these who die as cattle….no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs.” Owen writes as though he feels that there is indifference among the death of his fellow soldiers.

Owen intends to shock us by presenting the reality he is feeling, this is why I had chosen this to be one of my poems Owen usesgraphic descriptions, speaking in a very direct and straightforward way, using words that convey ugliness and also shows the reality of war which clearly changes our thoughts of war in the end.

Wilfred Owen is today recognised as the greatest poet of the first World War, his poetry at the time was considered to be controversial as it revealed the truths behind trench warfare and contradicted popular attitudes at the time. The works of Wilfred Owen, and specifically, the poems of ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ are both successful in powerfully giving a voice to the soldiers of war and conveying the dark and inextricable truth behind war provoking the reader to consider ideas about how this truth is told, rather than the bias opinions from the homefront.

In the first stanza, Owen describes a regiment marching through sludge, something not unusual for soldiers at the time. In the second stanza, however, he introduces a new threat, mustard gas. The speaker exclaims: “Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” (Owen L9). As most of the soldiers are putting on their gas masks, one fails to do so. The speaker is left watching the man struggle: “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…guttering, choking, drowning.” (Owen L12-16). After watching his fellow soldier succumb to the hellish effects of the gas, the speaker could not erase the images from his memory. In the last stanza, he chastised the people at home who romanticize war and challenged them to think about how admirable it is to watch a man die: “the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” (Owen L19-20).

As an anti-war poet, Wilfred Owen uses his literary skills to express his perspective on human conflict and the wastage involved with war, the horrors of war, and its negative effects and outcomes. As a young man involved in the war himself, Owen obtained personal objectivity of the dehumanisation of young people during the war, as well as the false glorification that the world has been influenced to deliver to them. These very ideas can be seen in poems such as 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and 'Dulce ET Decorum EST Pro Patria Mori'. Owen uses a variety of literary techniques to convey his ideas.

One is to think of war as one of the most honorable and noble services that a man can attend to for his country, it is seen as one of the most heroic ways to die for the best cause. The idea of this is stripped down and made a complete mockery of throughout both of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. Through his use of quickly shifting tones, horrific descriptive and emotive language and paradoxical metaphors, Owen contradicts the use of war and amount of glamour given towards the idea of it.

His tone implies that he didn't know what he was getting into when Uncle Sam beckoned for him to join the war effort. Owen uses words like “Obscene” (Owen 23), “Incurable” (Owen 24), and to add a satirical bite, “An ecstasy of fumbling” (Owen 9). Owen’s diction makes it clear what his position on the war is, and tries his hardest to describe the brutality of it. Owen concludes his poem with “you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory…” (Owen 25-26). Owen drives his point home with his bitter tone and honest message. “The old lie” (Owen 27) Owen exclaims at the end of his poem. Death is not a romantic thing, even to die for your country.

Wilfred Owen's war poems central features include the wastage involved with war, horrors of war and the physical effects of war. These features are seen in the poems "Dulce Et Decorum Est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth" here Owen engages with the reader appealing to the readers empathy that is felt towards the soldier. These poems interact to explore the experiences of the soldiers on the battlefields including the realities of using gas as a weapon in war and help to highlight the incorrect glorification of war. This continuous interaction invites the reader to connect with the poems to develop a more thorough

The manipulation by Owen’s superiors expose tragedy, as soldiers are being used like cattle to fight a battle with no cause. Throughout his poems, Owen does not portray anger as the enemy, but he is angry at those who are sending men over to fight the war. These who are affectively his superior and his rulers of the country, he is angry at the people who are

Poems using strong poetic technique and devices are able to create a wide range of emotions from the readers. Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively uses these poetic techniques and devices to not only create unsettling images about war but to provide his opinion about war itself with the use of themes within his poem. The use of these themes explored Owen’s ideas on the futility of war and can be seen in the poems: Anthem for Doomed Youth, Futility and The Next War. The poems provide unsettling images and belief of war through the treatment of death, barbaric nature of war and the futility of war.