Anthem for Doomed Youth Owen 1917 Poetic Techniques

Anthem for Doomed Youth -Owen, 1917

Poetic Techniques Definition Alliteration - The repetition of initial consonant sounds Assonance - The repetition of vowel sounds. Metaphor - A comparison between two objects with the intent of giving clearer meaning to one of them. Often forms of the "to be" verb are used, such as "is" or "was", to make the comparison. Onomatopoeia - The use of words which imitate sound. Personification - A figure of speech which endows inanimate objects with human traits or abilities. Repetition - the repeating of words, phrases, lines, or stanzas.

Simile - A comparison between two objects using a specific word or comparison such as "like", "as", or "than". Stanza - a grouping of two or more lines of a poem in terms of length, metrical form, or rhyme scheme. Cacophony A discordant series of harsh, unpleasant sounds helps to convey disorder. Enjambment: The continuation of the logical sense — and therefore the grammatical construction — beyond the end of a line of poetry. Personification: the act of attributing human characteristics to non-human things. Rhyming Couplet: a pair of lines that rhyme Dirge: A musical lament for the dead.

Poem Definitions Bugle: like a trumpet, commonly used in battle announcements Demented: insane or mentally ill Mourning: state of sorrow over the death or departure of a loved one Pall: burial garment in which a corpse is wrapped; is a cloth which covers a coffin at funerals

The Story Form: Purpose: Tone: Characters: Setting: Title:

Stanza One What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Technique: Simile Mourning rituals Effect: Comparing soldiers to Technique: cattle suggests that they Rhetorical similarly are herded onto the Question battlefield and slaughtered in Engages reader masses. The simile takes to consider his away from the human argument quality of being loved and

Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Technique: Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle onomatopoeia Can patter out their hasty orisons. Technique: Repetition Technique: Alliteration Technique: Personification Effect: These lines answer the rhetorical question of the first line. He creates imagery of the battle field. The repetition of “Only the” exaggerates the minimalist nature of a soldier’s “funeral”. The imitation of sound conveys the cacophony of the battlefield for readers. It is all negative.

No mockeries for them from prayers or bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, — The shrill, demented choirs of wailing Technique: Rhyme shells; Contrast And bugles calling for them from sad Effect: the rhyme of Effect: the contrast shires. bells and shells between the first two lines suggests that one is a of what is missing and direct replacement of what they have illustrate the other. how far circumstances are outside of “normal”.

What candles may be held to speed them all? 
 Not in the hands of boys, but in th eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. Technique: Rhetorical question Technique: Imagery Technique: Religious Theme Effect: suggests that their death is a waste. Not only is a life gone, but those at home are left to mourn without closure. Moreover, the anonymity makes it so that it appeals to all readers—not just a specific few.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; 
Their flowers the tenderness of silent maids, 
And each slow dusk a drawingdown of blinds. Translation: the unnatural shade of girls’ brows shall be the ornamental funeral blanket. Technique: Word Choice—girls boys Effect: reinforces the helplessness of killing the Technique: Imagery young. Effect: Gives the poem a slight sense of closure, bu does not ignore the loss and waste of lives. Or, on ther other hand, I suggests that towns are closing their blinds and ignoring the realities of war.

Other Points An anthem is a Christian song of praise, but this sonnet takes this idea and ironically uses the form to point to loss of a whole generation of youth due to war It is a poem that recreates de-humanizing and wasteful scenes of war in an attempt to shock the audience. There are parallels of death on the battlefield and at home churches. Each is treated uniquely: harsh realism for battle and empathy and