The Eulogy of a Lost Generation: Wilfred Owen and the Musicality of the Great War
Erin Cheatham
Dr. Lance Wilder
ENGL 3050: Introduction to Poetry
29 October 2013
The University of Georgia
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Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth” explores the abhorrent reality of trench
warfare during World War I. A hauntingly abject musicality pervades the lines of the poem,
insinuating the ironic nature of the patriotic anthem. Through his explication and subsequent
rejection of religious and ceremonious terminology, Owen questions the providential and
patriotic nature of war. The violent song of the first stanza quickly gives way to the quiet grief of
the second, deepening the contrast between octave and sestet. The anthem of the doomed youth
creates a dissonant music that plays in the background, as the language of the speaker and
structure of the poem only furthers this dichotomy; the harsh, immediate reality of war and the
eventual quiet mourning of the “sad shires” contrast to create an irresolute ending for the
doomed youth who patriotically die for their country. The anthem instead evokes a sense of irony
as it becomes a dirge to the dead soldiers instead of a rallying song of nationalism and patriotic
pride.
The speaker begins the poem by presenting a question, asking what ceremony occurs for
men who “die as cattle” (1). Likening the soldiers to cattle strips them of their individuality,
instead amalgamating them into an amorphous mass. There can be no “passing-bells” (1) for
each of the thousands of soldiers slaughtered on the battlefield; the only solace they are afforded
is the “monstrous anger of the guns” (2). The language of the poem invokes iconic scenes of
funerals and religious ceremonies: a “bugle” is commonly played at a military funeral, “choirs”
typically sing hymns and prayers during church services, and a “pall” (12) is a cloth draped over
a coffin before burial (OED). The religious notions of “passing-bells” and “hasty orisons” are
replaced with demented choirs and stuttering riffles; the “mockeries” of religion are substituted
by the sights and sounds of warfare. The “hasty orisons” (4) are pattered out on the battlefield,
leaving little room for religion in the midst of shells and rifles. How can a benevolent God create
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such death and destruction? The sestet offers no real resolution to the destruction of the octave,
as the speaker cynically wonders how the deaths of the soldiers will affect those they leave
behind. The “holy-glimmers” (11) shine not in the candles held to remember the dead, but in the
terrified eyes of the dying men and the grief-stricken women and children that survive them.
Through the calm tone of the sestet, the speaker attempts to displace the religious notions that he
rejects in the octave, instead channeling the grief of the civilian towns affected by war into a sad
hymn, played by the “bugles” that call “from sad shires” (8).
Owen’s use of the Petrarchan sonnet evokes a sense of regulated structure: it contains
fourteen lines consisting of an octave followed by a sestet, both with a predictable rhyme
scheme. Yet, Owen occasionally deviates from the traditional sonnet structure of iambic
pentameter through his seemingly sporadic addition of syllables and reversal of iamb to trochee.
The antiquated, stringent form of the Petrarchan sonnet is at odds with the sonnet’s language,
and what ensues is a battle between form and content. The first line of the poem, “What passingbells for these who die as cattle” (1), contains not ten, but eleven syllables, an addition that Owen
repeats throughout the poem, as evidenced by line thirteen, “Their flowers the tenderness of
patient minds” (13). Line three begins with the trochee “only”, shortly followed by another in the
first two syllables of “stuttering” (3). We literally stutter and stumble our way through the poem
just as the rifles and shells stutter and stumble from the sky. These “interruptions” are selfreflexive in that they call attention to the highly-mediated nature of this particular poem. Owen is
hand-crafting his own eccentricities into the poem to interrupt its natural flow, preventing the
reader from establishing any sense of comfort or complacency. These unsettling moments mirror
the grief, anger, and confusion of the dying soldiers amid the violent battlefield described in the
first stanza. The mass casualties of World War I revolutionized the modern view of war; to keep
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up with this shifting modernity, the traditional structure of the past, i.e. the sonnet, must compete
with the mechanized and fragmented world that the destructive scale of WWI created. Owen’s
complicated use of language reinforces his complicated depictions of war, as he attempts not to
veil the gruesome reality of trench warfare, but to unearth it in all its horrible glory. The disarray
of violence and death is mirrored by the interruptions and discontinuities of the sonnet form. Yet,
the poem is unified by the intricate patterning of consonance and alliteration, elements that add
an elegant musical tone.
The “bugles” (8) set the backdrop of the poem, creating an aspect of musicality that
slowly drifts in and out. The use of anaphora in lines two and three, “Only the../Only the..”, sets
the pacing of the poem; the hurried anger and violence of the octave is reinforced through the
repetition of words and sounds, emulating the “rapid rattle” (3) of guns and the steady falling of
“wailing shells” (7). Even a violent battlefield can invoke a hauntingly beautiful musicality. The
alliteration and regular rhyme scheme generate a melodic tune throughout both stanzas, yet this
‘anthem’ is both beautiful and terrifying; the “demented choirs” sing the “shrill” songs of
“wailing shells” (7). The alliteration in the “stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle” (3) emulates the action
which it describes, the incessant firing of a gun. The harshness of the “battle hymn” dulls as we
shift from octave to sestet; just as the “drawing-down of blinds” (14) shields the grief but does
not end it, the anthem is drawn-down but continues to play for the doomed youth.
Through his use of the present tense in the first stanza, the speaker invokes a tone of
familiarity, describing “these” (1) men who exist in the “now” (5). Yet, shifting the focus to the
future creates a further rift between the octave and the sestet, as the speaker ponders what “may”
(9) and “shall” (11, 12) exist of the civilian life that the soldiers return home to, either dead or
living. In addition to the shift in tense, the transition from the first stanza to the second marks the
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shift from the violence of the battlefield to the quite mourning of civilian life of the “sad shires”
(8). The octave emulates the cacophony of war while the sestet encompasses the silence of
personal grief, deepening the contrast between the two. The gentle embrace of grief of the sestet
answers the “demented choir” of shells and rifles that fill the octave, facilitating the transition
from anger to silent mourning as soldiers return home from the front lines. Though the
dissonance created by the octave is not resolved in the sestet, the speaker creates a sense of
serenity in the face of unspeakable violence. The “pallor of girls” (12), the pale, sad faces of their
wives, sisters and daughters, cloak the caskets of the men, enveloping them in the “tenderness”
(13) of a final good-bye. No more “stuttering” or “wailing”, but the “slow” (14), “tender” (13),
and “patient” (13) process of grief and acceptance as the people of the “sad shires” (8) eventually
draw-down the blinds at dusk. The speaker does not offer an answer to the horrific reality of war
portrayed in the first stanza, as death does not have any comforting resolution and God is
nowhere to be found; instead, the tears of the loved ones shine holy and grief takes the place of
religion.
Owen’s ironic use of the word “anthem” in the title reinforces the ‘double’ nature of his
poem. The Oxford English Dictionary defines an “anthem” as: “A popular song with rousing,
emotive, qualities, often one identified with a particular subculture, social group, or
cause.” Reminiscent of the phrase “national anthem”, from the beginning we are expectant of a
patriotic sense of duty to ones country. Yet, through the speaker’s language and sense of
musicality, we are exposed to the harshness and violence of this “anthem” as we realize the true
nature of Owen’s words. He contrasts the popular sentiment of patriotic sacrifices for one’s
country with the grisly realities of war. Instead of a rallying hymn of nationalistic pride, Owen
creates a eulogy to the sacrificial soldiers; the ‘doomed youth’ that once patriotically marched to
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the front lines now face the “monstrous anger” (2) of war with no voice to mourn them but the
“wailing shells” (7) and “stuttering rifles” (3). The cacophonous and violent “anthem” that
ensues creates a harmony that dulls in the transition from octave to sestet, as the soldiers return
to the mournful civilian lives they left behind, and the anthem eternally plays as “each slow
dusk” sees a “drawing-down of blinds” (14).
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Works Cited
Owen, Wilfred. “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. The Poems of Wilfred Owen. New York:
Norton, 1986. Print
Paperback Oxford English Dictionary. Seventh ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.