anthem of doomed youth poetry essay

Anthem for Doomed Youth Summary & Analysis by Wilfred Owen

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

"Anthem for Doomed Youth" was written by British poet Wilfred Owen in 1917, while Owen was in the hospital recovering from injuries and trauma resulting from his military service during World War I. The poem laments the loss of young life in war and describes the sensory horrors of combat. It takes particular issue with the official pomp and ceremony that surrounds war (gestured to by the word "Anthem" in the title), arguing that church bells, prayers, and choirs are inadequate tributes to the realities of war. It is perhaps Owen's second most famous poem, after " Dulce et Decorum Est ."

• Read the full text of “Anthem for Doomed Youth”

The Full Text of “Anthem for Doomed Youth”

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.

“Anthem for Doomed Youth” Summary

“anthem for doomed youth” themes.

Nationalism, War, and Waste

• See where this theme is active in the poem.

Ritual and Remembrance

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “anthem for doomed youth”.

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

      — Only the monstrous anger of the guns.       Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;        Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,— The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

      And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?       Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.       The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Lines 13-14

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

“Anthem for Doomed Youth” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

Alliteration.

• See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

End-Stopped Line

Personification, rhetorical question, “anthem for doomed youth” vocabulary.

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Passing-bells
• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Anthem for Doomed Youth”

Rhyme scheme, “anthem for doomed youth” speaker, “anthem for doomed youth” setting, literary and historical context of “anthem for doomed youth”, more “anthem for doomed youth” resources, external resources.

Poems in Response to Owen — A BBC show in which three contemporary poets respond to Wilfred Owen's poetry.

Learn More About War Poetry — A series of podcast documentaries from the University of Oxford about various aspects of World War I poetry, including some excellent material specifically about Wilfred Owen. 

More Poems and Biography — A valuable resource of Owen's other poetry, and a look at his life.

A Reading by Stephen Fry — Internationally famous actor, comedian,and writer Stephen Fry reads the poem (with a bugle call in the background). 

Bringing WWI to Life — In this clip, director Peter Jackson discusses his recent WWIfilm, They Shall Not Grow Old. Though technology, Jackson brings old war footage to vivid life, restoring a sense of the soldiers as actual people. 

LitCharts on Other Poems by Wilfred Owen

Dulce et Decorum Est

Mental Cases

Spring Offensive

Strange Meeting

The Next War

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

A Summary and Analysis of Wilfred Owen’s ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is probably, after ‘ Dulce et Decorum Est ’, Wilfred Owen’s best-known poem. But like many well-known poems, it’s possible that we know it so well that we hardly really know it at all. In the following post, we offer a short analysis of Owen’s canonical war poem, and take a closer look at the language he employs.

‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’: introduction

Start with the title of Owen’s poem: ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. The Oxford English Dictionary offers several different meanings for the word ‘anthem’, none of which is especially positive. ‘A rousing or uplifting popular song’: Owen’s poem may be popular, but it’s hardly uplifting.

‘A song officially adopted by a nation, school, or other body … typically used as an expression of identity and pride’: Owen’s poetry has definitely been adopted by schools around the country (and beyond his home country of the UK), but ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is not exactly about pride – at least, Owen sees little to be proud of in the slaughter of thousands of young men in the name of war.

‘A poem … esp. one of praise or gladness’: we may praise the young men who are giving their lives for a senseless war, but there’s little to be glad about here.

Is ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, then, an ironic title? Not exactly, but then it does have a wry edge, as a brief summary of the poem’s contents will reveal.

‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is a sonnet divided into an octave (eight-line unit) and a sestet (a six-line unit). Although such a structure is usually associated with a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet , here the rhyme scheme suggests the English or Shakespearean sonnet:  ababcdcdeffegg . The one twist is in the third quatrain, which is rhymed  effe , with enclosed rhymes, rather than the more usual  efef .

‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’: summary and analysis

As with Owen’s powerful use of pararhyme in his other poems (perhaps most powerfully of all in the couplets of his poem ‘Strange Meeting’ ), such a twist on the established rhyme scheme is designed to wrong-foot us, and remind us that nothing in this war is as it seems: the old certainties have broken down.

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? — Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons.

The octave lists a number of noises associated with battle and warfare, contrasting them with the respectful funeral sounds: the ‘passing bells’ mournfully announcing someone’s death are mutated into the sounds of gunfire; the ‘rapid rattle’ of the ‘stuttering rifles’ constitutes the only prayers (i.e. ‘orisons’) these poor doomed soldiers will hear.

Picking up on the prayer theme which also lurks in the ‘anthem’ of the poem’s title, there may be a faint pun in ‘patter’ on ‘paternoster’, the first words of the Lord’s Prayer in Latin : pater noster means ‘Our Father’. But this is a side-issue and need not detain us in our analysis of the poem. ‘Stuttering rifles’ is a nice example of onomatopoeia – or rather, a horrific example of it – with the repeated ‘r’ and ‘t’ sounds evoking the sound of the rifle-fire.

Note how the human voice has here been supplanted by the machinery of mechanised warfare: the rifles are described as ‘stuttering’, thus gesturing towards a monstrous form of anthropomorphism; ‘prayers’ and ‘orisons’, usually uttered by the human voice to God, are replaced by the sounds of the guns; the ‘choirs’ traditionally associated with church-music are not people singing, but the ‘shrill, demented’ sounds of the ‘wailing shells’ as they fly through the air and explode.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,— The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

Where more traditional human activity does remain, such as in the playing of bugles, this, too, has been perverted so that it is inextricably bound up with military action.

What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

How interesting, then, that the mechanical twisting of religious acts of devotion and respect which we are presented with in the octave should, in the sestet, be turned on its head.

Owen tells us that the most sincere ‘holy glimmer’ of respect for the dead soldiers is not found in the glimmer of candles (lighted as an act of remembrance) but in the brightly shining eyes of young boys (suggestive not only of the children made fatherless orphans by the war but also of their slightly older brothers, young boys of sixteen or seventeen who had gone off to fight in the war).

The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

The ultimate funeral pall is no sheet placed over the tombs of dead soldiers but the pale brows of the young girls the men left behind (first for war and then, tragically and more permanently, in death), girls who have lost their sweethearts and are pale with grief.

The ‘tenderness of patient minds’ – ‘patient’ not only because those left at home had to wait patiently and agonisingly for news of their loved ones fighting at the front, but also in the sense of ‘suffering’ (the original meaning of ‘patient’) – will be more powerful a memorial for the dead men than the literal flowers placed on their graves.

Even the world itself, and the natural order, seems to mourn: every time the light fades from the land and dusk falls, it will be as though the world has gone into mourning every night for the dead men (the act of drawing down the blinds of a home was a common way of showing yours was a house in mourning).

In the last analysis, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is a clever sonnet but more than this, it’s an impassioned one: Wilfred Owen fills his poem with raw emotion which moves us in every line. The cleverness isn’t allowed to dominate, yet Owen’s use of mourning imagery and funeral conventions makes for a poem that not only makes us think, but moves us too.

If you found this commentary on ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ useful, you can discover more classic war poetry here .

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5 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Wilfred Owen’s ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’”

Reblogged this on Greek Canadian Literature .

You set me thinking is it possible to know something so well we don’t know it at all ? Does familiarity breed contempt ? Do we become tired of explanation? Like a proof – reader do we just see lines of words? Can the old become new and fresh again or are we always seeking something new? Lastly just what are we searching for , perfection or oblivion?

For me, the most heartbreaking of all Wilfred Owen’s poems is The Parable of the Old Man and the Young. It turns what we expect of humanity on its head as I suppose war often does.

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“Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen Literature Analysis Essay

War is one of the most horrific events that could possibly happen to our world. It is feared and avoided by generations of people. Even though the modern generations of humans growing up in the Western countries and on the territory of Global North have never faced real war, they are well aware of its terrors and scary consequences. The First and Second World Wars have taught people a memorable lesson. The events of the past still haunt some of the countries, the relics of the war are still being found in the places of former battlefields, the veterans are being honored and the films about the war times are still popular.

Of course, the modern humanity knows about the Wars not only from the history books and classes. The First and Second World Wars were massive events that caused horrible destructions and had millions of victims. Lots of people were enlisted in the army and fought at the front lines. Many of these people were poets and writers. Their works outlived the creators in order to serve as reminders of the awful and shocking circumstances these men and women had to witness.

Wilfred Owen was one of such poets. He was born in 1893 in England. He was a highly intelligent man and worked as a language tutor in France, until his patriotic duty sent him to the front line (Wilfred Owen, par. 3). All of the poems of Wilfred Owen are collected in a single volume. There are not many of his works, because this brave man died young.

He is a typical example of his generation, a young man with proper values that fought for his motherland and died at the battlefield as a hero, crossing the Sambre canal and leading his men (Wilfred Owen, par. 4). Owen’s style and works were strongly influenced by another great poet of the First World War times, Siegfried Sassoon (Biography of Wilfred Owen 2014, par. 2). Wilfred Owen was deeply touched by the scenes he observed during the war.

This is why many of his poems are tribute to the war times and reflect the pain and horror the young man had to experience every day. The descriptions of war in literature and poetry are much more striking than the dry facts from the history books. The art of using right words and comparisons in order to create the brightest associations in the minds of the readers requires a lot of talent and skills. Wilfred Owen possessed both, and this is why he is considered one of the greatest First World War poets in the world.

The poem called “Anthem for Doomed Youth” was written in 1917 in fall. The poet begins asking his readers a question about the young soldiers that are killed like cattle at the battle fields all over the world. Owen wonders what kind of “passing bells” (1) will say farewell to these boys and girls that barely saw the life. The poet describes the sounds of shooting guns and rifles and compares them to the prayers because these are the last and only sounds the young fighters hear before dying.

The author mentions that there are crowds of soldiers with such sad destinies that die together from both sides and remain forgotten and lost among the hundreds of other victims of the battles. The author answers his initial question saying that there are no “voices of mourning” (6) prepared for the unknown heroes. In the next lines of the poem Wilfred Owen says that the candle light that is always a part of the holy ritual will only shine in the eyes of the doomed young boys.

The poet mentions that these boys will remain lost in the battlefields, yet the memories about them will always live in the hearts of their loved ones and close people, and this is the only farewell ritual they will ever have. “The tenderness of patient minds” (13) will become the flowers on their graves. The last image the poet shares with his readers is the blinds being drawn down at dusk; this comparison is designed to remind of the civilian people at their homes during the war times grieving about the relatives and friends they lost. This last image also serves as a finalizing phrase that makes the poem complete and finished.

Wilfred Owen compares the routine of the front lines that surrounds the soldiers at the moments of their death with the only holy ritual they will have because under the circumstances of the war most of the soldiers that died at the battlefields were just forgotten, some of them never were properly buried.

The poem is called “Anthem for Doomed Youth” because Wilfred Owen got to personally observe the horrific conditions that were killing thousands of young soldiers every day. Most of these soldiers were under the age of twenty; they arrived to the front lines and were doomed. The ones that survived were called “the lost generation” because after they saw the realities of the war it was impossible for them to adjust to the normal life.

Works Cited

Biography of Wilfred Owen . Poem Hunter . 2014. Web.

Owen, Wilfred. Anthem for Doomed Youth . 2014. Web.

Owen, Wilfred . BBC . 2014. Web.

Owen, Wilfred. War Poetry . n. d. Web.

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Wilfred Owen: Poems

Commentary on the poem "anthem for doomed youth" by wilfred owen ilaria marchese 12th grade.

The poem Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen was written during World War I in 1917, when Owen was recovering from shell shock in a war hospital in Edinburgh. Hence, Owen writes from the perspective of a soldier on a battlefield. The persona presents in this poem the effects of war on young male adults sent to war: their loss of identity and their premature death as well as, the indifference or even lack of respect of society towards their premature death. It could be suggested that the author is exploring the theme of the horror of war and the separation war creates between those who stay at home and those who thought: the so-called two nation effect. In order to convey these themes the author employs irony, aural imagery, visual imagery, repetition

The structure of Owen's Anthem for Doomed Youth is ironic. It is written in the form of a hybrid sonnet, as it combines the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet with the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet except for lines 11 and 12. The Petrarchan sonnet is a variation of the Elizabethan sonnet as the fourteen lines are divided in two unequal stanzas. The Shakespearean rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFFE, GG. One should note that Owen uses a half-rhyme for B. The fact that...

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Anthem For Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen: poem analysis

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This is an analysis of the poem Anthem For Doomed Youth that begins with:

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. ... full text

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• Analysis of Dulce Et Decorum Est
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• Analysis of A Palinode

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Anthem for Doomed Youth

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What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes. The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

This poem is in the public domain.

More by this poet

Dulce et decorum est.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Winter Song

The browns, the olives, and the yellows died, And were swept up to heaven; where they glowed Each dawn and set of sun till Christmastide, And when the land lay pale for them, pale-snowed, Fell back, and down the snow-drifts flamed and flowed.

The Unreturning

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Literary Analysis of "Anthem for Doomed Youth" by Wilfred Owen

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Published: Jun 29, 2018

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Anthem for Doomed Youth

by Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? — Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,— The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Summary of Anthem for Doomed Youth:

• Popularity of “Anthem for Doomed Youth” : Wilfred Owen, a well-known British poet wrote this poem . It is one of the tragic sonnets also known as a funeral dedication for soldiers in the First World War. It was first published in 1917. The poem speaks about the death of soldiers either in the Battle of Somme or Passchendaele. It explains how the soldiers die helplessly on the battlefield. They do not have anyone to give them proper burial after their sacrifice. One of the notable aspects of the poem is the poet’s rejection of God and religion after seeing suffering around him.
• “Anthem for Doomed Youth” As a Representative of Death: The poem presents the speaker ’s sadness and agony on the loss of lives during the war. The poem begins with the awful deaths of the soldiers. The poet sadly states nobody rings the bells for those who die like cattle on the battlefield. They never receive any formal ceremonies to honor their death. Instead, both sides of soldiers receive anger of the guns and rifles. Although they fight tirelessly, they get no mourning sounds and cremation. They are brutally shot and killed. The poet expresses his agony as he recalls that nobody lights up the candles for their memorial. Only girls with their pale faces who could be their mother, girlfriend, or close kin put flowers.
• Major Themes in “Anthem for Doomed Youth”: Horrors of war, death, and suffering are the major themes of this poem. The poet paints a realistic picture of the battleground. The readers must realize how soldiers sacrifice their lives to defend their country, but the civilians honor their deaths. They are killed like animals during the wars. Usually, at funerals for the dead , the bells ring, and prayers are offered. However, the soldiers do not have that privilege. Instead of bells and prayers, sounds of guns, fires, and shells are heard after their death. Their families can only cry on the news of their death.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “Anthem for Doomed Youth”

literary devices are tools used by writers and poets to convey their emotions, feelings, and ideas to the readers. Wilfred Owen has also employed some literary devices in this poem to express his ideas. The analysis of some of the literary devices used in this poem has been given below.

• Assonance : Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /o/ in “No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells” and “Only the monstrous anger of the guns.”
• Consonance : Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /l/ in “The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells.”
• Alliteration : Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick succession. For example, the sound of /r/ in “Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle”; the sound of /d/ “And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds” and the sound of /g/ in “Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes”.
• Enjambment : It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break ; instead, it continues to the next line. For example,

 “Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.”

• Imagery : Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle”; “Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes” and “Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.”
• Rhetorical Question : Rhetorical question is a statement said or asked to make the point clear without expecting any answers. For example, “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” and “What candles may be held to speed them all?”
• Simile : It is a figure of speech used to compare an object or a person with something else to make the meanings clear . There is one simile used in the opening lines of this poem. For example, “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle.” Here, the poet compares dead soldiers to cattle.
• Personification : Personification is to give human qualities to non-living objects. For example, guns are personified in the second line of the poem, “only the monstrous anger of the guns,” as if the guns are humans that can express anger.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “Anthem for Doomed Youth”

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

• Sonnet : A sonnet is a fourteen lined poem. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is a Petrarchan sonnet made up of one octave and one sestet .
• Rhyme Scheme : The rhyme scheme followed by the poem is ABAB CDCD EFFE GG.
• End Rhyme : End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. For example, “cattle/rattle”, “all/pall” and “minds/blinds.”

Quotes to be Used

The lines can be used to express sadness and anger who die an unnatural death or become a victim of terrorism.

“What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.”

Related posts:

• Youth and Age
• Sonnet 7: How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth
• Dulce et Decorum Est
• Insensibility
• Arms and the Boy
• Mother to Son
• My Last Duchess
• She Walks in Beauty
• Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
• O Captain! My Captain!
• The Waste Land
• A Dream within a Dream
• I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
• The New Colossus
• The World is Too Much With Us
• When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be
• Love’s Philosophy
• Little Bo-Peep
• A Poison Tree
• Pied Beauty
• Acquainted with the Night
• My Papa’s Waltz
• When You Are Old
• Those Winter Sundays
• Mary Had a Little Lamb
• How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways
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“Anthem For Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen : Questions and Summary

“anthem for doomed youth” by wilfred owen..

orisons – prayers

shires – counties

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pallor – paleness

pall – a cover for a coffin

1. What does the simile, “who die as cattle” suggest about the death of the young soldiers?

The comparison of the soldiers to dying cattle suggest the number of casualties, as well as a tinge of anger, at how their lives are being disposed of without much thought in the name of war.

2. What literary device is used to create images rather than simply offer descriptions of the weapons of war in the first octet of the poem?

The first stanza is filled with uses of onomatopoeia: stuttering, puttering, patter, shrill, and wailing.

The use of religious terminology and imagery remain consistent with the undertone of irony and sarcasm found throughout the poem. In the first stanza, the use refers to the lack of hope and grace on the battlefield.

4. How does Owen link the two stanzas of his poem? Why does it break?

The two stanzas of the poem are linked by the idea of a calling. The first stanza concludes with the calling of bugles to war, while the second stanza begins with the calling of candles from war. The poem breaks to show the transition from the action of the first stanza to the inaction (through death) of the second.

5. What do the soldiers receive in lieu of a funeral?

Rather than proper burials, the soldiers receive the thoughts of those they left behind.

6. What is the term for the repetition of the ‘r’ sound in “rifles’ rapid rattle”?

The above phrase exemplifies alliteration . The repetition of the ‘a’ sound in rapid and rattle is also an example of assonance .

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GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE poetry analysis "Anthem for Doomed Youth"

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

12 May 2024

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GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE

“Anthem for Doomed Youth” poetry analysis

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