Stylistic Analysis of Poem Anthem for Doomed Youth

1. Anthem for Doomed Youth
by Wilfred Owen
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
—Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
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 goodbyes.
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

2.  The subject of it is war, and the pity of war runs
through all Owen’s poems. It is the theme of his
poetry. Owen’s anger at the cruelty and waste of that
war, and his pity for soldiers who were slaughtered in
it, led him to write the deeply moving poem—
“Anthem for Doomed Youth”.
 In this poem, the poet 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”.

3.  Stylistic Analysis of the poem:
Stylistically, the poem will be explored on the following
levels;
 Lexical level
 Grammatical level
 Figurative Level
 Phonological Level
 Context and Cohesion

4.  Lexical Level:
 Nouns:
 Bells Choirs Girls
 Cattle Bugles Brows
 Anger Shires Pall
 Guns Candles Flowers
 Rifles Hands Tenderness
 Rattle Boys Minds
 Orisons Eyes Dusk
 Mockeries Glimmers Blinds
 Prayers Goodbyes
 Mourning Pallor

5.  The excessive use of nouns in the poem reflects that
the emphasis is upon human individuals and their
suffering. The words bells, rifles, guns highlight the
butchery of war. The words like prayers, mourning,
flowers, dusk, blinds, and goodbyes suggest the ritual
of death which the soldiers are being deprived of.

6.  Adjectives:
 Monstrous Demented rapid
 Wailing slow hasty
 Sad stuttering shrill
 Patient hasty
The use of adjectives is to bring home the idea that
death and sadness is lurking in the lives of individuals.
The adjectives ‘rapid’ ‘hasty’ ‘stuttering’ ‘shrill’ and
‘monstrous’ lend the movement and destructive
quality to the poem.

7.  Grammatical Level:
 Morphemes: There are bound morphemes employed
in the poem which are: Bell-s, Gun-s, Stutter-ing,
Rifle-s, Orison-s, Prayer-s, Choir-s, Wail-ing, Candle-s,
Boy-s, Eye-s, Glimmer-s, Goodbye-s, Tender-ness,
Blind-s.
 Noun Phrase: These noun phrases infer meanings to
the overall understanding of the fact that there is a lot
of sadness which is associated with the soldiers’ death.
The noun phrases are: Monstrous anger, Stuttering
rifles, Demented choirs, Wailing shells, Hasty orisons,
Patient minds.

8.  Figurative Level:
 Simile: What passing-bells for those who die as cattle?
“die as cattle” suggests that soldiers are as vulnerable and
insignificant as the cattle who are killed mercilessly.
 Metaphors:
 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 goodbyes
 .The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall
 .And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
These metaphors suggest that there is no one who is going
to mourn the death of soldiers. Instead of candles, the tears
shining in the eyes will say them goodbye. The pale
yellowish colour of the girls would work as the coffin for
them and drawing dusk will cover their faces instead of a
shroud.

9.  Personification:
 Monstrous anger of the guns
 Stuttering rifles rapid rattle
 Choirs of wailing shells
‘guns’ ‘rifles’ and ‘shells’ are giving human qualities to
heighten the effect of death which is presented as an
angry and monstrous figure.
 Alliteration:
"rifles'--rapid rattle" which grabs our attention, builds
momentum, war zone

10.  Imagery:
 Religious imagery: (bells, prayers, choir, candles, holy)
 War imagery: (guns, rifles, shells, bugles)
 Imagery of death: (die, mourning, wailing, sad, pall)

11.  . Coherence and Cohesion:
All the figures of speech, nouns, adjectives and
phonological sound patterns create coherence and
cohesion in the poem and each component infers
different meaning to the poem which adds to the
context of the poem.

12. The selection of words suggest that poet laments the
death of those soldiers who die like cattle in an
undignified mass. They are not granted the rituals and
rites of Christian funeral. They do not get real prayers,
only rifle fire. It suggests that religion cannot offer
much consolation to those dying on the front. The
religious images symbolize the sanctity of life and
death while suggesting the inadequacy of religion
measured against such a cataclysm as war. The tone of
the poem is dolorous yet consolatory. It leaves a note of
finality, of lingering sadness and an inability to avoid
the reality of horrible death in war.