Poetry analysis: Wilfred Owen

Courtney Chatters Professor Steven Wexler Engl 495SEM 10 February 2013 Poetry is not my favorite form of literature. To be honest, I have struggled a great deal throughout my college career trying to analyze and understand poetry in previous classes. Being an English major it is impossible to escape poetry, so it is very important for me and other students to find a way that helps us better analyze and understand poetry as literary works. By knowing who the poet is and when the poem was written can help us, as readers of literature better comprehend what is being said or conveyed. I have taken into account that all literature is written in a cultural, social or historical context, and understanding one if not all contexts adds to the comprehension of poems.With that said, in a prior English class where the course was solely based on poets like Carl Sandburg, T.S. Elliot, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth I learned how helpful it is for me to have historic knowledge about the poet as well as the time that the poem was written. I understand a piece of literature much better by looking at it specifically in its historical context. Personally, I believe knowing the historical context of a poem helps to understand it more. Knowing where the poem came from with regards to a time period and the purpose it was written for can provide a thorough understanding of the piece of poetry. Knowing the historical context of a poem can make it easier to analysis and to understand the meaning of a literary work. "Anthem for Doomed Youth" was written by poet Wilfred Owen in 1917. Owen was also a soldier during World War 1. Owen's poem is one of many works of war poetry actually influenced by the writer’s own personal experience in war. With this background knowledge of the poet, we can be conscious as we read of the historical importance of the poem. Owen exposes the reader to the real terrors of war, and ". . . . filled himself with sympathy for the dead soldiers and hatred to this unjust war. Through the title of this poem, it is clearly seen that Owen just sang the anthem for the innocent young soldiers. He thought the First World War brought the youth generation into its doomsday, and brought sufferings to people. The pity for thousands of dead soldiers and the hatred to this war were accepted naturally as the theme of the “Anthem for Doomed Youth”." (Hang 60) Throughout the poem we can see the real difference in the expectations and thoughts of the soldiers in war. "Anthem for Doomed Youth" is composed in the standard form of a Petrarchan sonnet, but it uses the Shakespearean sonnet rhyme scheme except for lines 11-12. The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG but the rhyme scheme of Wilfred Owen's poem is ABAB CDCD EFFE GG. The first line of the poem illustrates the "Doomed Youth" dying "as cattle." This simile is showing how the soldiers were killed and no more significant than cattle that are led in to be slaughtered without compassion. Wilfred Owen uses figurative language, imagery, metaphors, similes, and other poetic devices to convey his message. He mainly focuses on the theme of death, using emotional language to distress the reader, and cause the reader to sympathize with the situation and circumstances of war. The alliteration "rifles' rapid rattle" (line 3) is another poetic device to stir up harsh feelings to get the horror across to the reader through language. Also, in the first stanza Owen tries to convey the sounds heard in war from the weapons “guns” “rifles” and “shells.” In the last stanza, Owen writes "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." (lines 10-12) In these lines Owen depicts the families’ responses to learning about that their loved ones dying in the war. All that the families can do really is grieve over the sad and devastating news of the deceased soldiers. The poem’s historical origins, vivid imagery, and realness evokes thought provoking views on wars, which we can acknowledge and appreciate even today. Work Cited Hang, Guo. "A Simple Analysis of Artistic Conception in" Anthem for Doomed Youth"." Sino-US English Teaching 4.4 (2007): 59-64.