[TheBeardedClam]

Mark Vesely
Mrs. Heer
Eng 1020 online
22 Sept. 2008
Anthem for Doomed Youth
The poem, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen is a dark poem that talks about the death of the young in the world. It discusses how kids are sent off to fight wars and die for something that they may not even believe in. It describes the funeral of such a youth and what goes on there. Finally, this poem ends on one the saddest lines as it closes out the day and the life of a young soul.
In the very first lines, it gives the reader a setting in the mind of the person who is viewing somebody’s inevitable funeral for a soldier who has died. Owen states:
“What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
-Only the monstrous anger of the guns” (1-2)
The word “cattle” (1) that Owen uses in his poem is describing what the youth is to the general public. It seems nobody has a problem sending off young minds to die as they are cattle to be used at their own discretion. The “monstrous anger of the guns” (2) are the shots being fired as one would do while honoring a fallen soldier. They are sick of seeing the youth die for reasons they shouldn’t have been involved with in the first place.
Owen then continues his daydream at this funeral when he mentions the lines:
“Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.” (3-4)
Here the reader can decipher these lines as a cry for help. The “stuttering rifles” (3) are asking for no more. The guns don’t want to hurt anybody no more as the offer their prayers (“orisons” (4)) to the families of the person who has died. Guns do as they are told, as are soldiers, and guns can relate to what the soldier and his family are going through.
You see that the reader imagined a funeral for his fallen friend because in the next four lines of this tragic poem, the author writes:
“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.” (5-8)
“No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells” (5) talks of a beginning to a tragic end. This person in the poem who imagined his friend’s funeral comes to the realization that his friend will not be honored in some way. He will go on and simply be buried as they get ready to bury the next young mind that will die fighting for whatever it is he was forced into. “Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, - / The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;” (6-7) talks of a scene where no one seems to mourn for this man who has died. He knows his family is there, but that is all. All that happened for this unfortunate kid was shots (“shells” (7)) were fired and nothing else. That was as close as having a choir sing for him in a church as he was going to get.
Where Wilfred Owen starts to wind down and accept the fate of the kid in this poem, he writes the lines:
“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.” (9-11)
The “candles” (9) Owen mentions are the tears of those who have lost loved ones fighting. Owen sees the tears as a way of letting their eyes shine for them as if they were holding out candles to mourn the fallen. This creates a cycle of revenge as they want to go out and kill whoever it is killed their loved one. A young mind is vulnerable and extremely impressionable. This is why these kids are so easily duped into going out and fighting as a gun is put in their hand. But, they accept that their loved one is gone with the line “Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.” (11)
Owen closes out this poem so beautifully and heartbreaking:
“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.” (12-14)
The author talks about now to end the poem is describe the women in the dead soldier’s life that cared for him and all they wanted was for him to come back home safe. They didn’t want him to come back home in a box. In the line “Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,” (13) all the women have to offer to him are their flowers of mourning. In the end, they know revenge will be had because the boys mentioned in the previous lines will make sure revenge is had. The haunting line to end one of the most tragic poems, “And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.” (14), tells the story is saying goodbye to another soul far too early. They try to take one last look as they tell the one they love goodbye (“slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds” (14)) for one last time.



Work Cited

Owen, Wilfred. “Anthem for Doomed Youth.” An Introduction to Poetry. Twelfth Edition. Ed. X.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 492.