![]() ![]() While I will always believe in the significance of the Great War Poets, Owen’s poetry remains relevant to society today because it demands attention be given to the emotional impact of war and the sacrifice and suffering of soldiers for their countries. Ultimately, Owen upholds respect for the duty of the soldier yet calls to question, through graphic images and strong associations, the motives of those who impose this duty on the young men who die violently on the front. He highlights the finality of death at war versus the promises of peace and heroism from people back home, specifically the members of the Christian clergy, in “Anthem for Doomed Youth.” His use of religious imagery and “holy glimmers of goodbyes” matched with the contrasting “monstrous anger of the guns” and “stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle” contributes to his striking expression of the horrors of war that contradict the lies told back home. Influenced by Sassoon, Owen’s poetry began to transform. Owen wrote “Anthem for Doomed Youth” while he was treated for shell-shock at Craiglockhart War Hospital, along with fellow soldier, sufferer and war poet Siegfried Sassoon. It was written one year before Owen’s own death in battle, which was one week before the Armistice, making his description of funeral rites on the battlefield and slaughter of young men like cattle even more chilling. Rather, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is an elegy that chillingly laments the brutal ends of young soldiers’ lives in the trenches. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” adopts the form of a slightly altered sonnet, directly opposing the love and romance typically associated with the sonnet form with the harsh depravity of war that Owen describes in satisfying detail. I especially appreciate the intense imagery of Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” one of his revealing judgments of war written but not published during his lifetime, his life cut short in battle before he could be recognized as one of the influential war poets. I won’t purport to have a precise explanation as to why, other than the continual curiosity of exploring the emotional toll of war, determined rhythm, and vivid diction of their poetry. The Great War Poets, especially Wilfred Owen, always fascinate me. ![]() Poem selected and commented on by Jenny Bagger Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,Īnd each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes What candles may be held to speed them all? The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells Īnd bugles calling for them from sad shires. Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-– No mockeries now for them no prayers nor bells What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? ![]()
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