V4 _ Anthem for Doomed Youth

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Anthem for Doomed Youth- W. Owen

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.

WWI - Anti-war poem

• WWI-  around 17 million people died worldwide. 
• Poem Anthem for Doomed Youth written by WWI combatant Wilfred Owen while recovering from the trauma of battle
• War is a hellish and a futile waste of human life
• Protest poem—subverting the usual use of “anthem” as a symbol of nationalism (that is, taking undue pride in your home nation) into an anti-war message.

(anthem = special song for a particular group of people, such as the national anthem)

www.litcharts.com

Sonnet

A fourteen-line poem with a fixed rhyme scheme and meter

Anthem for Doomed Youth = a Petrarchan sonnet made up of one octave (8 lines) and one sestet (6 lines)

Volta (=turn in thought) in line 9

Octave = On the battle field

Sestet = At home

Rhyme Scheme ABAB CDCD EFFE GG

Meter: Iambic Pentamenter

Meter: A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that creates the rhythm of lines of poetry. The units of meter are called feet. 

Feet have different stress patterns. 

Iamb = unstressed + stressed syllable e.g. deFINE, beLIEVE

Penta = 5 

Iambic pentameter = 5 feet (foot = 2 syllables), so 10 syllable in total unstressed/stressed unstressed/stressed etc. (5 times)

Title

Anthem for Doomed Youth

It’s a patriotic/ religious song for the dead soldiers who were doomed from the start in this dreadful and futile war

Find examples of

1. Assonance = repetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words, in any given position in the word
2. Consonance = repetition of the same consonant sound in nearby words, in any given position in the word
3. Alliteration = repetition of the initial stressed consonant sound in nearby words
4. Simile = comparison with "as"/"like" (an explicit comparison)
5. Rhetorical question = a question asked to make a statement, one that does not require an answer
6. Personification = a non-human thing is given a human attribute
7. Enjambment = a line of poetry carrying over into the next line, no end-stop in a line
8. Imagery = descriptive words appealing to the five senses (sound, sight, hearing, taste, touch)
9. Onomatopoeia = word that makes the sound it describes (e.g. buzz, tweet)
10. Symbols for funeral rituals

Literary devices used 

Assonance:  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:the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. 

For example, the sound of /l/ in “The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells.”

Alliteration: the repetition of initial (= first letter) stressed 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”.

 

Literary devices used 

Enjambment:  a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; instead, it continues to the next line; no end-stop at the end of the line, but the thought carries over onto the next line

“Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes -> no end-stop here

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.”

Imagery: words used to appeal to the five senses (sound, sight, hearing, taste, smell)

 “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:a statement said or asked to make the point clear without expecting any answers. 

Line 1: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?”

Literary devices used 

Simile:  used to compare an object or a person with something else to make the meanings clear/a comparison with AS or LIKE  Line 1: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle.” Here, the poet compares dead soldiers to cattle.

Personification:  to give human qualities to non-living objects. 

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.

Symbols: one thing represents something beyond literal meaning/another deeper meaning thing 

In Anthem for Doomed Youth symbols for funeral rituals are: 

Anthem (religious song during church service and song of a country to express patriotic feeling), Passing bells (bell tolled immediately after death), orisons (prayers), mockeries (absurd or worthless version of something), prayers, bells, mourning, choirs, candles, pall (coffin cloth), drawing-down of blinds

Literary devices used 

Symbols: one thing represents something beyond literal meaning/another deeper meaning thing 

In Anthem for Doomed Youth symbols for funeral rituals are: 

Anthem (religious song during church service and song of a country to express patriotic feeling), 

Passing bells (bell tolled immediately after death), 

Orisons (prayers), 

Mockeries (absurd or worthless version of something), 

Prayers, bells, mourning, choirs, candles, pall (coffin cloth), drawing-down of blinds

Onomatopoeia: the word describes the sound (e.g. buzz, shriek, tweet)

Stuttering rapid rattle