Anthem For Doomed Youth

What is being said/ main idea/ purpose How it is said techniques/ structure etc

First Stanza of the sonnet Owen is looking at the conditions at the front line in the trenches Where men fight and die like animals. Implicit is the notion that the war is inhumane. He draws an extended comparison of a funeral both at home and at the front, which are two vastly different affairs. In the difference he makes us see hos awful the deaths at the front were.	Rhetorical Question/Simile “What passing bells for these who die as cattle?” He is drawing a comparison with a simile and the question to make us think about the horrific way these men are dying. Personification “ The monstrous anger of the guns. The stuttering rifles rapid rattle, the shrill demented choirs of shells” All of these combine to create not only a visual picture of the hellish conditions but also to imply a degree of menace from the inanimate objects. It is almost as if Owen has moved from a blaming of those in charge with Dulce to a blaming everything associated with war in this poem. Alliteration “ stuttering, rifles rapid rattle” The repetition suggests the sounds of the battlefield. Owen was clever in the way he not only managed to create a picture of what was happening but also managed to evoke sounds and the other senses as well to give as full a picture as possible. Onomatopoeaia “ stuttering” Used to describe the rifle’s sound as they shoot. Draws to our minds the actual sounds the rifles made, makes us feel we are really there.
Second stanza Takes a look at not only the appalling and wasteful deaths of the young men on the filed but also pulls our attention to those who wait at home.	Rhetorical Question What candles may be held to speed them all?” We are drawn to think about the differences in the two types of funerals; the one at home that follows the traditional respectful formula and the chaotic unremarked deaths at the front. Metaphor “ Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds” The reference is to the prayerful thoughts of those who wait at home, hoping that their loved ones will be safe and when he dies this is the only flower there will be. Metaphor “ a drawing down of blinds” A look at the physical closing of the blinds against the dusk but also the drawing to an end of a life, the death. Creates a sense of unutterable sadness.