Analysis of Anthem for Doomed Youth

Analyse the ways in which Own conveys powerful feelings about war in the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’.
In the poem ‘anthem for doomed youth’ by Wilfred Owen, many techniques are used to make the poem as raw and powerful as it is.
The first way that Owen conveys powerful feelings about the war in the poem is through his use of structure. The poem is in a sonnet form and is split into an octet and a sestet. The significance of structuring the poem in this way is that a sense of deep sadness and irony comes to our attention. The sonnet a form of poetry whose conventional function is love is being used to describe a sort of anti-love that is deeply moving. In addition to this the splitting up of the poem into two stanzas shows the contrast between them. In the octet Owen uses semantic fields of words that catalogue the sound of war, for example ‘die’, ‘guns’, ‘orisons’ ‘mourning’ ‘demented’ ‘sad’. In contrast the second stanza, sestet, is much more focused on the other side of war- the families of those who die in the war and the pity he feels towards them By doing this Owen powerfully contrasts the feelings of sadness anger and pity which are all feelings that are relatable during war.
In addition to this through Owens use of rhyme adds to the mood and feeling of the war and poem. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, EFFE GG. At first one thinks that the rhyming scheme is a regular end rhyme, however in the sestet the rhyming scheme totally changes and this draws significant attention to the lines where the rhyming scheme is changed. This also slows down the whole poem as it comes to an end and finally rounds the whole sonnet with a rhyming couplet. This gives the feeling that there is nothing more to say, the end of the poem and the end of the soldiers’ lives is definite and there are no more questions to be asked. We can see the influence of one of Owens favourite poets William Shakespeare as he loved to use sonnets and end them in a full way. His rhyming scheme dictates the speed and feel of the poem well which conveys the messages of war as you read through the poem.
A key part of the poem and the words that I think most powerfully convey feelings about the war is the title, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. Owen has carefully chosen four words that accurately what the poem is about. ‘Anthem’ is usually a song used to express joy, however here it is used ironically in contrast, in a very solemn and dark poem. The anthem is also known as a very patriotic and honourable song, however Owen goes on to explain through his poem that there is no honour or glory in fighting in a war. ‘Doomed’ is a well-chosen word that shows how the death of all the soldiers that go out to fight is inevitable and although they may still be alive now, they won’t be in a few months. In a way it is much worse to know that there is no longer any hope or that that you are only living to wait for death. Finally ‘youth’ is a word that shows that many of the men going to fight were still very young. This is very say as we know then that these boys haven’t even experienced life before they are sentenced to a death they cannot escape.
Owen uses both metaphors and similes to further emphasize the meaning and the powerful feelings in the poem. In the very first line of the poem it says ‘what passing bells for these who die as cattle’. This simile is used to create an idea that the soldiers that are going off to war are not actually soldiers but herds of cattle on their way to slaughter. This dehumanises the men showing what the poet felt about how the soldiers were being treated at the time of the war. This poem and lines like these make the idea of war seem very real and awful, which is what Owen was trying to do. He uses very vivid imagery to present the reality of war, rather than everything else that was written at the time to do with the heroism of being a soldier. Poets like Jessie Pope, who wrote very patriotic poems annoyed Owen, and caused him to write poems such as this in retaliation to the untruthfulness of others. His 1917 poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ was another poem that was in retaliation. In the first manuscript of the poem which Owen sent to his mother, one can see the direct dedication to Jessie Pope. Owen used vivid and powerful similes to convey a truthful and open feeling about war that not many other people were doing at the time of world war one.
In addition to this Owens use of diction helps to convey powerful feelings about the war in this poem. Lots of the words we see used in the poem are to do with a religion, something we get the feeling Owen is, in a way, mocking in his poem. He makes various comments about how, ironically the only prayers and burial services the dead soldiers will ever get are the sounds of guns. ‘No mockeries now for them, no prayers nor bells’. This quotation is very moving as it openly shows what is happening on the front line. Young men who fought so gallantly for their country don’t even get a simple funeral to mark what they did. In addition to this later in the poem Owen again uses religious imagery to create a powerful feeling about the war ‘shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes’. This line of the poem I believe is the most ironic part of the poem and fully shows how much faith Wilfred Owen has lost. It shows how he really can’t believe how anything holy can happen somewhere that is so full of loss and devastation. The way that Owen has set the sensuous imagery among graphical idea of war is directly contrasting in a way that conveys powerful feelings about the war very well.
Another way that Owen creates powerful feelings is through his use of sound. This poem is full of words or phrases that replicate the sounds of the front line. For example through use of hard consonant sounds Owen duplicates the sound of gun fire ‘stuttering rifles rapid rattle’. This creates the effect of the short and sharp bullets being fired, just as the hard consonant sounds create a harsh and loud sound when you read them out loud. In the same quotation, alliteration is used to enhance the sound of the rifles and make the line stand out even more. By doing this Owen created very harsh feelings of the war through the sound of the words in the whole poem which dramatically augments the poem for the reader
In conclusions the powerful ways that Wilfred Owen uses to convey powerful feelings about the war can be seen to be most effective and used throughout the poem.