CARLOS MANUEL
MARTINHO LAJARIN POESÍA DE LOS SIGLOS XIX Y XX
carmarla@alumni.uv.es
GRUPO – A
In this paper I´m going to analise
the poem: “ Anthem for Doomed Youth”, that was first published in Poems by
Wilferd Owen (1920) and to give a historical context related to World War One.
I will explain some metaphors of the poem and
analise the vision of the poet of the World War One through this poem.
The poem
“Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen only has one stanza. The poem is a
sonnet. The main theme of this poem is the death and suffering of the soldiers
in World War One. It is interesting to see Owen´s point of view, because he was
a soldier.” On 21 October 1915, he enlisted in the Artists Rifles. For the next
seven months, he was in training at Home Hall Camp in Essex. In January 1917 he
was commissioned as a second lieutenant with the Manchester Regiment” ( from
wikipedia).
Firts
we have the title “ Anthem for Doomed Youth”. The word “Anthem” means a song,
and the other part of the title means the soldiers who died in war ( Doomed
Youth). It is a poem dedicated to that young people who died in World War One. This
poem “ was written in 1917, when Owen was a patient at Craighlockhart War
Hospital in Edinburgh, recovering from shell shock” ( from wikipedia).And he is
describing what he feels about that place, a War hospital. It is the perfect
place where you can find and see the horror of war. The title “Anthem” was
named by Siegfried Sassoon because Owen asked for his assistance. “ Owen met
and became close friends with another poet at the hospital, Siegfried Sassoon,
and asked for his assistance in publishing his rough drafts. It was Sassoon who
named it’Anthem’”.( from wikipedia).
In this
poem, the author is comparing two different burial rites: The traditional (
with passing-bells, the candles...) and the burial for the people who died in
war, changing the typical things of a burial for other things that reminds us
of the war ( guns, wailing shells...).
When the author says “ passing-bells” in the first
line, those passing-bells are the bells that sounds when someone is dead. And
in the same line, we have the expression “ die as cattle”. This expression
introduces us to the battle in war, and make us know from the author´s point of
view how the people were killed in battle. It reflects perfectly that feeling
of horror, because the poet is telling us that they were killed like animals.
In lines one and two, the author is comparing the
sound of the passing-bells with the sound of the guns. Owen wants to make a
difference between the two sounds, and wants to make sure that the reader
understands how different and radical this sounds are, and is telling us that
there will be no passing-bells, only the sound of guns.
It seems that in line number 3 when the author says:
“ the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle”, it´s like the poet is remembering the
moment when he was at battle and he is remembering the sound of that stuttering
rifles’. In lines number 5 and 6, Owen is talking about the ceremonies. And
saying that this ceremonies are usefull, because the people are dead and no
prayers or bells will take the soldiers from the other world, and that this
ceremonies will not recover their lives.
Then in lines number 7 and 8, the poet is talking
about the sound of the war. And when Owen says: “ demented choirs of wailing
shells” the author is referring to the sound of granades in battle. In line
number 9 when the author says: “ What candles may be held” he is making reference to the candles of a
burial.
When the author says “ Not in the hands...of good-byes”
( lines 10-11), it refers to the candles in the hands of people that can´t
represent the pain that the people suffer. Only we can see that pain in the
eyes of the people that are crying for their soldiers. Also the poet is talking
about the “ pallor of girls’ brows”. In the last line, we have the metaphor “ a
drawing-down of blinds”. It can represent the moment when someone closes
his/her eyes and it is like a person is blind. And this interpretation can
represent death.
Owen makes a lot of references to the senses. In
this poem we can see that he refers to sound in words like: “
passing-bells”(line 1), “ nor any voice” ( line 6). Also he is making reference
to sense of touch in words like: “ Not in the hands of boys”(line 10), “ What
candles may be held” ( line 9). And also making reference to sight: “ their
eyes” ( line 10), “shine”( line 11), or “ drawing-down of blinds”( line 14).
It´s a poem that you have to feel with
all the senses. Probably with this type of poetry, Wilfred Owen is trying to
approach us to his reality of the World War One.
CONCLUSION: I think that “ Anthem for Doomed Youth”
by Wilfred Owen is a very good poem. It reflects perfectly the horror and the
anger of World War One, and we have the
point of view of a poet that was a soldier of that war, and it makes the poem
different from others. And I like the way the author uses the senses in his
poem to make it more real to us. Also I think that this poem can be interpreted
the same way nowadays. In this time we have wars and battles, and because this
poem is not making reference to any day in particular, it can be used in our
days too.
Biography: “ Anthem for Doomed Youth – Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia” info-en@wikimedia.org. This page was last modified 03:32, 6 April 2006.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_for_Doomed_Youth
. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen.
“ www.wikipedia.com”