1. Faculdade de Letras- 2013/1
Professor : Marcel de Lima Santos, Modernist Literature
FirstExaminationTake-Home Essay
NAME : ALEX ALVES DE PAULA
DATE : 04/08/13
CHOSEN QUESTION : How can you see Owen‟s poem “Futility” concerning its
religious tone?
This essay is about the poem “Futility” by Wilfred Owen and deals with religious tone
through figurative meanings in its two stanzas. The poem itself portrays pityand
frustration regarding the “Futility” of war and its religious tone seems to intensify as the
narrator starts to question Mankind‟s existence.
The reader can observe the narrator‟s religious tone at the beginning of the first stanza.
It brings the personification of the sun, which is personified and described as “gently”
touching the man, waking up him from sleep. It seems that the sun mentioned in the
first verse by the lyrical I is related to an unknown fellow soldier who died in the war.
Basically, the first verse describes the speaker‟s dead friend and possibly the way that
he loved the sun. The lyrical I believes that by “moving him into the sun” his mate can
be revived. The nature represented by the sun is the only one that can help his dead
friend. The sun is seen by the lyrical I as an almighty God who has absolute powers and
is able to bring his friend back to life. We can see that the sun is considered here as an
image of respect and worship as well as Jesus Christ is revered byCatholics.
It‟s clear in the first stanza that the narrator begs for the resurrection of his fellow
soldier : “If anything might rouse him now The kind old sun will know”. This also
shows us that the sun is one more time personified by the speaker referring it as “kind”
and “old sun” is the only thing that can save his mate since it could be a metaphor for
God with miracle powers. Everybody knows that the sun gives energy and life to the
planet and its reference in this poem makes us think about our human condition since
we are always questioning the existence of the universe.

2. The second stanza brings religious questions and the figurative meanings deal with
mankind‟s existence. We can see clearly that the religious tone seems to intensify as the
narrator starts to question the creation due to his frustration regarding the death and the
horrors of war. “Think how it wakes the seeds”: “The seeds” means metaphorically life
in general on earth. According to Christianity, life is a gift of God and everyone on
earth owns soul. All of us are made of flesh and bone, but we have our spirit which is
considered eternal. It seems “the seeds” is compared to spirits that never come to an
end. As we know a new plant is able to grow from a seed and the narrator believes that
the sun has the capacity of bringing life to earth as well as bringing his fellow soldier
back to life since everything on earth depends on the sun to survive. The second verse
lead us to think when everything started before the sun brought life to our planet :
“Woke, once, the clays of a cold star”. “Cold star” represents the planet earth and
portrays the beginning of mankind‟s existence when the earth was only a cold place.
The word “clays” could be an allusion to the bible in the book of Genesis in the Old
Testament, in which Adam was made of clay. The tone here makes the reader think how
complex the nature and mankind are to understand and their creation is extremely
delicate.
Finally the poem itself portrays pity and frustration regarding the “Futility” of war and
its religious tone seems to intensify as the narrator starts to question mankind‟s
existence. The next religious questions show us how sad and sickened the lyrical I is
because of the horrors of war.” Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides, Full-nerved—
still warm—too hard to stir?” This shows us that the war is a very sad reality. If we
think that a manisthe main creation of God , his destruction through war is inacceptable.
“Was it for this the clay grew tall?”: We can see the narrator‟s frustration and his
deception related to the fate of his friend, whose life has been taken away by the war.
“—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth‟s sleep at all?” : This final
question lead us to think about the existence of mankind and certainly reveals the lyrical
I‟s disappointment against the “Futility” of war. The last three questions are a reference
to the insignificance of human life . We were not created by God to die as a soldier who
wasted his life fighting in a war.
In short, this poem brings a lot of interpretations related to religious tone through
figurative meanings in its two stanzas and lead us to think how our existence seems
meaningless when we lost our lives early. This make us feel very small in the universe.
The reader can observe the importance of it in terms of questioning our own existence.

3. REFERENCES :
The Theme of „Futility‟ in War Poetry
by Ahmad Abu Baker ,
availableon:http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Abu_Baker2.pdf
The impact of the First World War on the poetry of
Wilfred Owen Mohammad Riaz Mahmud available on:
http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Abu_Baker2.pdf