Anthem for Doomed Youth Wilfred Owen Spot the

Anthem for Doomed Youth Wilfred Owen

Spot the Difference? but What’s the impact?

Learning Intentions To understand the poem’s content and messages. To explore the impact of the writer’s choice of diction and imagery. To explore ways of developing and sustaining an analytical focus in the commentary.

Criterion A Knowledge and Understanding of the poem How well is the student’s knowledge and understanding of the poem demonstrated by their interpretation?

What is the poem’s ‘story’? What messages does the poet want to convey? Be precise. What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? QUESTION - Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle What is the Can patter out their hasty orisons. answer? 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 good-byes. 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. QUESTION What is the answer?

Anthem • A musical setting of a religious text sung by a choir during a church service. • A rousing or up-lifting song identified with a particular group or cause.

What are we looking for? Criterion B: Appreciation of the writer’s choices To what extent does the student appreciate how the writer’s choices of language, structure, technique and style shape meaning? • How thorough is the speaker’s exploration of the poem? • Does it examine and interpret content, diction, imagery, tone, form, rhyme, rhythm? • Does s/he quote effectively and use technical terms precisely? • Is there an indication that the speaker has engaged with the poem and the writer’s work?

Form: The Sonnet … • This is a 14 line poem. • It is usually divided into 2 or 4 parts. • The octet is the first 8 lines and the sestet is the last 6 lines. • Shakespeare divided his sonnets into 3 quatrains and concluded with a couplet. • The different sections are usually connected by their end-rhyme patterns. How do these relate to Owen’s poem?

Sonnet Form • The octave is set on the battlefield. • The sestet is at home. • The end of the octave signals the movement to England. • Both begin with a question. • Both seek to answer the question.

Extended Metaphor What extended metaphor is Owen using in this poem?

Each one has a counterpart highlighted by the arrows. Octave: What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? What is NOT - Only the monstrous anger of the guns. appropriate Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle as a form of Can patter out their hasty orisons. mourning for No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells, the soldiers Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. Sestet: What might be an appropriat e form of mourning. 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. 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. Religious elements would normally symbolise the sanctity of life, but is that the case here? Do you notice a change between the comparisons in the octet and those in the sestet? The poem pitches organised religion against the cataclysm of war.

Why ‘these’ rather than ‘those’? What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? - Only the monstrous anger of the guns. What is the purpose of the second line? What are the connotations of this adjective? What is the impact of the simile? Owen radically revised the opening line. Why did he settle on cattle?

What are the connotations of this adjective? How does Owen convey sound in this section and what is the effect of this? Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. The critic J F Mc. Ilroy suggests that ‘patter’ is an ironic allusion to an obsolete name for the Lord’s Prayer which comes from the word Paternoster. To whom does the possessive pronoun refer? What is the impact of this adjective? Why use ‘orisons’ and not prayers?

What sort of sentence have we got here and what is the impact of this choice? Comment on the use of negatives. No mockeries now for them; nor 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. Owen was in Craiglockhart when he was writing this poem. He was suffering from shell-shock and would have been surrounded by people who were in a far worse condition. How does the language here seem to suggest the madness of war and the madness it instilled in others? Comment on the choice of adjectives and on the use of sound.

The second stanza commences with a question. Comment on Owen’s patterning within the poem. What is conveyed by the use of the word ‘all’? What candles may be held to speed them all? Owen used the second person ‘you’ in some of the drafts. What does he gain by changing to ‘them’? What does it mean by ‘speed them all’?

What is the answer to the question just posed? Who are the boys here? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes. Comment on the sentence structure. Owen changed this from ‘lights’. What are the different connotations of the words? What is the impact of the change?

What does ‘pallor’ suggest? Whose are the ‘patient minds’? 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. How does the poet slow the pace of the poem in the last lines and why would he choose to do this? Comment on the use of alliteration.

The Rule of Three In constructing the poem, I believe that Owen explores three key ideas: a. b. c. In discussing the poem, I would like to explore the way he uses the following techniques: a. b. c.