THE SOLDIER

Rupert Brooke: if you saw him, you'd probably say he looks younger than he is. He
was sort of boyish, meaning he always kind of looked like a teenager, even in his late
twenties. He was good-looking, too. The famous poet William Butler Yeats once said
that Rupert Brooke was the "handsomest young man in England." Brooke, as is no
doubt clear from the fact the Yeats noticed him, was also something of a literary
celebrity.
He was friends with a group of writers known as the Bloomsbury Group. included
Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster and the Georgian Poets (a group of poets who all
published poetry in a series of five anthologies entitled Georgian Poetry, named after
King George V of England).
In 1914, Brooke penned a series of sonnets that he very cleverly titled1914, the
fateful year in which World War I broke out entitled 1914 & Other Poems, that really
brought them to the public's attention.
Our poem, "The Soldier," begins by talking about the soldier's possible death, but
the manner in which these poems explore death is not what we might expect.
Indeed, it is not so much a gruesome death on the battlefield or in a trench (a very
common theme in much World War I poetry) that preoccupies Brooke as it is the
blissful afterlife that soldiers will get to experience when they die. To die in battle for
one's country is nobleeven honorablein Brooke's sonnets, but especially so in
"The Soldier."
Alas, Brooke eventually had the chance to embody his poem to its fullest. Brooke
himself died while serving in the Royal Navy in 1915. A mosquito bite became
infected, and he died of sepsis in April of 1915a solider, a poet, no more.
Rupert Brooke is often classified as a World War I poet, and yet there is no trace of
this horror in "The Soldier." the entire second half of the poem, is about a very
peaceful afterlife, an "English heaven." It sounds like a brand of perfume! Well, it's a
perfect example of the "before photo" of how folks feel before they commit
themselves to the violence of war. Rupert Brooke wrote "The Soldier" in 1914, just as
World War I was about to begin. To cut him some slack, there is no way he could
have known what course the war would take, and how horrible it would be. As a
matter of fact, nobody could have foreseen just how bad things would get for
everyone.
Brooke's poem reflects this pre-war perspective and is an important counterpoint to
much World War I poetry. (The poems of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon,
among others, often emphasize the senselessness of the Great War and the tragic
deaths many young soldiers suffered.) As such, it gives us some great insight into
how people can romanticize war when they haven't yet experienced it. The
destruction of this pre-war idealism was almost as significant for Europe as the
destruction of so many young lives. For us, Brooke's poem is an important reminder
of how we can talk our way into unspeakable horrors with so many beautiful words.

The speaker informs his audience what to think should he die. He tells them only to consider
that a portion of some foreign field will be "forever England" as a result of his death. The
soldier, who was raised and nurtured by his country, England, will be buried in the earth.
After he dies, the soldier will go to a peaceful, English heaven, where he will re-experience
all his English memories. Good times! Right?
Lines 1-3

If I should die, think only this of me,

That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.

If he dies, the speaker wants people to only think one thing: that there is some
"corner" in a foreign country that is "forever England." Hmm. How can a "foreign field"
be "forever England"?

If the speaker gets killed in battle and is buried in the field, that spot will be English, in
the sense that English bones will be buried there "forever."

Even if the speaker isn't buried in the field, presumably some of his blood would get
mixed in with the soil (gross), which also make the field "English," in a way.

The speaker also means that if he dies on the battlefield, that piece of land will be
"claimed" by England. Wars are sometimes fought, after all, over land.

Most of Brooke's poetry is about World War I, so it's a safe bet that the "foreign field"
here is probably somewhere in continental Europe.

Lines 3-4

[] There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

The speaker further describes his death. If he dies, a human bodyhis bodywill be
buried in the "earth."

"Dust" here refers to the remains of a human body. In many funeral services, the
presider will say something to the effect of "ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

In normal speech we might say "there shall be a richer dust concealed in that rich
earth," but this is poetry. Poets love to play with word order. (This order also helps to
preserve the poem's iambic pentameter.

Notice, too, that the word "concealed" is delayed until the very end of the sentence.
Concealed refers to burial so perhaps the speaker is avoiding talking about his own,
ultimate fate.

Perhaps he is trying to hold our attention until the very end of the line.

"Rich" refers to the quality of the soil. The "richer dust" is the dead soldier, who is
more important"richer"than just some plot of land.

Another way to look at this is that the dead soldier might also be "richer dust"
because he is English, and thus better or "richer" than the land in which he is buried.

While we gather that the speaker is talking about himself, he doesn't explicitly identify
himself with the dust. He doesn't say "my richer dust," that is. It's almost like he's
trying to avoid thinking too much about his own death and is imagining the death of
some generic, unnamed person.

Lines 5-6

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

The speaker tells us more about that "dust."

England gave birth do it ("bore"), "shaped" it, made it "aware." England also allowed
it to "roam" her "ways" and gave it her "flowers to love." Basically, England here plays
the role of the dust'sthe soldier'smother. (Something to think about for later: why
there is so much emphasis on the country-as-parent rather than on the "real"
mother?)

The second line here can be paraphrased as follows: "England once gave this dust
her flowers to love and gave it her ways to roam."

But how do you give dust a gift? Don't forget that dust here still means (checking the
title) The Soldier.

Dust is an interesting word, though. On the one hand, it refers to soil, and points to
the soldier's Englishness. He is one with the dustthe land.

On the other hand, the "dust" refers to the dead body, or even the cremated ashes of
the dead body. In a way, the speaker is not really talking about a person anymore,
just a corpse.

Lines 7-8

A body of England's, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

The speaker reminds us that this dust was a "body of England's" that really
experienced all England had to offer: air, rivers, sunthe works!

"Breathing English air" is strange, since it's in present tense. Is the

soldier still breathing the air, even though he is dead? Does he die and still imagine
he is breathing it? Or, is "breathing English air" just a metaphor for the soldier's
Englishness? You know how some people say that the live, eat, and breathe [fill in
their favorite thing (like football or model trains) here]? Well, he's so English, he
breathes it!

Line 9
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

The speaker turns to his addressee again and implores him to "think"
(consider, we might say these days) that the soldier's heart "shed away" all
the bad stuff of life.

What does this mean? It sounds like the speaker is emphasizing the soldier's
goodness, the fact that he eliminated (shed, like old skinew) all evil from his
life.

Lines 10-11
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

The "eternal mind" probably refers to something like the idea of God. The
speaker seems to be saying that, when the soldier goes to heaven, he will
become part of that larger, unending being and perhaps re-experience, in the
form of a "pulse," all the thoughts "by England given."

This probably means that he will re-experience everything he once knew of

Englandof homeafter he dies. So, he's got that going for him.

The speaker says "gives back." Does this mean his thoughts were taken
away? Likely, he means that, during some interval between death and
heaven, he will not be thinking or conscious, so he'll get his thoughts back
once he gets to the Big Man's house.

Lines 12-13
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends;

We learn more about what the soldier will experience in heaven. It's almost
like he's going to an England in the sky! Celebrate good times!

What will be there when he arrives? Well, the "eternal mind" features the
same sights, sounds, and dreams that the soldier enjoyed back in the earthly
version of England. There will also be the laughter the solider "learnt of [i.e.,
from] friends."

In any case, the speaker paints a very joyous, peaceful picture of life after
death that will be much like his happiest times spent in England.

Lines 13-14

[] and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

This place sounds like a blast. There will also be "gentleness" in the hearts of
those who get into this "English heaven." And why shouldn't there be? Their
hearts are "at "peace."

This idea of an English heaven is intriguing, though. Maybe there are different
heavens for different people, and the soldier in this poem will go to an English
heaven, as opposed to a German heaven, or a French one. In any case, we
know his afterlife will be filled with the familiar comforts of home. Yay for him!

Analysis
The word "England" or "English" occurs six times in this poem. That's a lot for a
poem that is only 14 lines! In this poem England is like a mother to the soldier; she
gave birth to him, nourished him, made him who he is. But England is also immortal.
Even though, in death, the soldier must leave England, it's only for a little while.
When he dies, the soldier will go to a heaven that's just like the England he left
behind on Earth. Sweet deal!

Lines 2-3: The soldier wishes to be remembered for making a foreign piece of
land "forever England." This idea of a permanent, immortal England will return
again soon.

Line 5: The speaker compares himself to dust that "England bore." Dust here
is a metaphor for the speaker's relationship to the natural world and for the
fact that he may soon be a corpse. Of course, England can't really bear
children so this is an example of personification, the attribution of human
qualities to non-human things.

Line 7: The speaker refers to himself as a "body of England's, breathing

English air." He's as English as the Queen!

Line 11: The speaker will re-experience in heaven "thoughts by England

given." England can't really give anything, so this is another example of
personification (the attribution of human qualities to non-human things). It's
also another example of how the experience of England will live on for our
speaker.

Line 14: When the soldier dies he will go to an "English heaven." Imagery

There's a lot of nature in this poem. Fields, dust, flowers, rivers, sunsit's all over
the place. The relationship between the speaker and the natural world is very close,
even harmonious. When he dies, he returns to the earth (as dust). Moreover, as a
child, he was "washed" and "blest" by the rivers and sun of his homeland (England).
When he dies, his heaven will look like the England he knew as a childincluding its
natural characteristics.

Line 2: The speaker imagines acquiring a "corner of a foreign field" for his
home country, England. Nature is endowed with English-ness here, as it will
be again soon.

Line 4: The speaker imagines himself as a part of nature, a pile of "dust

concealed" in the earth. Dust here is a metaphor for both the speaker's status
as a corpse and for his relationship to the natural world.

Line 6: England gave the speaker "flowers to love" and "ways to roam."
England can't actually give anything, really (nice try, though), so this is an
example of personification, the attribution of human qualities to non-human
things.

Line 8: The speaker was "washed" by England's rivers, and "blest" by her
suns. Neither the suns nor the rivers can wash or bless, so this is also
personification, the attribution of human qualities to non-human things. Both
washing and blessing are metaphors for the way England nurtured the
speaker.

When you die, you go to heaven, which will be like paradise. That, at any rate, is
what the second half of "The Soldier" tells us. Better than paradise, in fact, heaven
for the soldier will be just like England! (We wonder if the angels fly on the left side of
the clouds.) If the soldier dies fighting for his country, it won't be so bad, because he
will get to go "home." His heaven apparently will be chock full of memories of
Englandher "sights and sounds," and a whole lot of other good stuff. Like figgy
pudding.
"The Soldier" is written in a metrical form called iambic pentameter. If that sounds familiar to
you, that's probably because it's the most common meter in English poetry.

So what does iambic pentameter even mean? You see, every line of iambic
pentameter contains five (pent- is the prefix that means five) iambs. Now, an iamb is
a two-syllable pair that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable. it sounds like this: da-DUM. "Allow," for example, is an iamb.)
And think, this heart, all evil shed away.
here are in fact many different types of sonnets, but the two most common are the
Petrarchan sonnet (named after the famous Italian sonneteer Francesco Petrarca)
and the Shakespearean (or English) sonnet. The major difference between these two
types is the rhyme scheme. The octave of a Petrarchan sonnet generally follows this
form: ABBAABBA, where each letter represents one particular end rhyme for that
line. In this case, line 1 (A) would rhyme with lines 4, 5, and 8, while the sestet could
take several forms (CDECDE and CDCDCD being the most popular).
The English sonnet, in contrast, has a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCD EFEFGG (the
final two, rhyming lines are known as a heroic couplet, bee-tee-dubs). Now, we're
telling you all this stuff about rhymes because Brooke's poem combines elements of
both the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean sonnet. The octave is like an English

sonnet, and its rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD. The sestet, however, takes the form
of a Petrarchan sonnet and has a rhyme scheme of EFGEFG.

The Realist The Idealist The Patriot

This patriotism, then, is part of what ultimately blinds the speaker to the very real,
impending horror of World War I. when he wrote "The Soldier," his speaker is a great
example of the kind of nave, overly-romantic, and jingoistic thinking that could send
millions of people into armed conflict against each other.
England from the speaker's past, England in a foreign field, heckeven England up
in heaven! No matter where the speaker's mind roams (because the poem literally
takes place in his mind, rather than, say, a London pub), it always finds England.

his poem is about: a generic but ideal (or model) soldier, one who understands that
he may die but also believes his death will benefit his country (England). As a result
of his sacrifice, after all, "some corner of a foreign field" will be "forever England," no
matter what happens.
To a certain extent, Brooke's poem reflects what many Europeans at the time would
have considered an ideal soldierone who loves his country very deeply (the words
England or English occur six times in this very short poem). That soldier would also
see his own death as a sacrifice that will benefit his country. And what's his reward
for this sacrifice? Well, it's nothing but good times and high fives in the afterlife, that's
what! The soldier's death is portrayed as not really the end, but only the beginning of
a new, blissful, but (importantly) familiar life in heaven.
Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge

Just as the poem predicts, Brooke died in the warfrom an infected mosquito bite.
He died on April 23, the traditional birthday of Shakespeare. (Source.)
A young Winston Churchill, who gave Brooke his commission in the Royal Navy, also
wrote part of his obituary. (Source.)
Now this is eerie. Rupert Brooke is buried on the Greek island of Skyros. That's right.
He's in "some corner of a foreign field"! (Source.)
The famous novelist Virginia Woolf once boasted that she had gone skinny dipping
with Rupert Brooke (he was so handsome that it would have been kind of like saying
you went skinny dipping with Tom Cruise). (Source.)
The poem is called "The Soldier," so naturally it's about war. Unlike many other famous
World War I-era poems, however, Brooke paints a more optimistic picture. The soldier's
possible death is mentioned, yes, but so is a blissful life after death. Moreover, the poem
celebrates the fact that the soldier's death will give England another "corner" of land. So, for
the speaker, all this warfare business seems like a big win! Of course, he hasn't
actually been to war just yet.

Anthem for Doomed Youth

War is Hell.
There are funerals and prayers, parades and flag waving. There's a lot of talk about
patriotism and glory. But, it's often completely detached from what'sactually going on
where the fighting is. And where the fighting is, things are a lot less glamorous.
Wilfred Owen, the poet behind "Anthem for Doomed Youth," was a young British
officer in World War I. He entered the Great War full of enthusiasm and patriotic
fervor, ready to fight and die for his country. But over time, after grueling months in
the trenches, and through his encounter with Siegfried Sassoon (an older soldier and
poet who was pretty cynical about the war) Owen came to realize that the realities of
battle were far different from what he'd been led to believe.
"Anthem for Doomed Youth," was published posthumously in 1920. In Britain (and in
much of the world), talk of the war was steeped in a jingoism that hid the realities of
what was going on. (By the way, jingoism refers to the following attitude: "Our
country is the greatest ever! Our enemies are vile and worthless! Let's go smash 'em
good! Dying for your country is holy and glorious! Hurrah!")
But "Anthem for Doomed Youth," along with Owen's other poems, brings the reader
right into the normally hidden senselessness of this fighting, and the brutality, too.
And the poems hold that horror-filled image up next to the more patriotic versions of
war we get at home, so the reader could see how different, and how terrible, war
truly is.
That's what Owen seeks to highlight in "Anthem for Doomed Youth." That no matter
how much we memorialize, tribute, or honor the fallen, we can't ever really know
what it was like for them in those horrible moments before death. "Anthem for
Doomed Youth" strives to make it impossible for us to ignore those realities, and to
realize that in the face of all that horror, our anthems might ring hollow, no matter
how much we seek meaning in them.
Our speaker asks us what sort of notice or holy ritual marks the deaths of soldiers
who are slaughtered in battle. He then answers his own question, pointing out that
there are no special occasions or pleasant ceremonies on the frontonly the sounds
of weapons and battle, which he compares to a demented sort of song and
ceremony.
He concludes that only tears and the pale, drained faces of their loved ones will send
these deceased boys off; the tenderness of patient minds will be like flowers on their
graves. In the last image, our speaker shows us an image of civilians pulling down
their blinds at dusk.

Line 1
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

People are dying and our speaker asks us, what sound is there to mark their
deaths?

Those "passing-bells"? They're church bells, which are rung to mark

someone's death (when they have passed away).

Already this phrase has introduced religious imagery to the poem, but it's
contrasted with the horrific experience on the front lines of war, where men die
like cattle. And where we can't imagine any church bells are ringing.

"Those" gives a sense of distance to the poem. You might use that word to
talk about people who are far away, or whom you feel separate from. If you
use "these," it's as though you're talking about someone who's right there in
the room with you.

as if we're on the battlefield, seeing those soldiers falling right and left.

the soldiers compared to Cattle. It's not exactly the nicest simile we've ever
heard. But it does pack a big punch.

The phrase "die as cattle" suggests slaughter. He's saying that something
about these deaths is especially terribleit's inhuman, it's treating soldiers
like animals.

Cattle come in herds, right? It seems a lot of these men are dying all at once.

All in all we've got a pretty bleak start to what will probably be a pretty bleak
poem.

"Whatpassing-bells for these who die as cattle."

There's a little da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM action, with an

extra "da" at the end of the line.

When we see this rhythm in poetry (five da-DUMs in a row), we call itiambic
pentameter. In this case, it's got an extra syllable at the end, just for fun.

Line 2
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

It's nice of our speaker to answer his own question for us.

The only thing that marks their deaths is the angry sound of more guns.
Gunfire is just about the opposite of pleasant church bells.

That word "monstrous" is a pretty big and heavy word, we'd say, especially to
load on top of "anger."

We mean, anger is already a pretty violent and scary thing. So "monstrous

anger" means that something about these guns is terrible enough to put
regular anger to shame.

And now we know for sure, if we hadn't already guessed, that this poem is
talking about war.

After all, where else would men die like cattle to the sound of monstrously
angry guns?

Lines 3-4
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.

Our speaker says that rifle fire is the only kind of prayer for the dying soldiers.
("Orison" is kind of a fancy word [from Latin] for prayer.)

That word "hasty" makes us aware of the suddenness of death on the war
front, and also underscores the haphazard and senseless nature of the killing
that's going on there.

These are not thoughtful deathsthey're quick, loud, and messy.

The word "stuttering" helps bridge the gap between the rifles and the people
back home who are saying prayers for these boys. By personifying the rifles,
it gives us a weird opposite of what happened when the soldiers were first
compared to cattle.

The soldiers become like animals, while the guns become like people. That
does not sound like a good combo.

In any case, there are some strange connections being madebetween guns
and prayer, between people and animals.

Bonus: did you notice the rhyming action? Yep, rattle rhymes with cattle and
orisons rhymes (sort of) with guns.

Line 5
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;

There are no prayers and no bells on the front to mock the dying men.

Here our speaker's not pulling any punches. He sets us up with the word
"mockeries" then, when we find out what those mockeries would beprayers
and bells.

This line strips the holy, solemn mask off those rituals and casts them as an
outright sham. Those prayers? Those bells? They're a joke.

We're thinking the speaker feels this way because he thinks that those rituals
totally miss the point. They ignore what's really happening.

They glorify the deaths by pretending that the fighting is purposeful and noble,
when really it's akin to slaughtering cattle.

Lines 6-7
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

In fact, there's basically no mourning going on whatsoever on the battlefield,

except for the wailing of shells, which our speaker compares to the sound of
choirs.

Once again, we've got a traditionally religious image (choirs) being used as
a metaphor for the rather unlovely reality of war (in this case, the sound of
shelling). Now that's a terrifying contrast.

This is a freaky sort of choir. It's "shrill" and "demented." Something is twisted
here. This is not a choir you want singing at your funeral, or even your
average Sunday mass.

The use of these uncharacteristic adjectives could be another way for our
speaker to point out the huge difference between what life and death are
really like on the front, and the holy and noble way that those back home
present it.

this word choice also has a way of pointing out that all the holy and patriotic
civilians are absent at the front. There's no voice of mourning there for the
young men, no pomp and circumstancejust the sound of shells.

Our speaker is either lamenting this factwondering where all these mournful
patriots are in actual battle, or he's saying that if there isn't any fancy
memorial going on on the battlefield, then we shouldn't pretend by having
them at home. It just seems phony (at least, so says the speaker).

Line 8

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

Our speaker now draws our attention to another sound of mourning for the
soldierthe sound of bugles playing in sad towns.

A "shire" is an English term for a county.

And of course the bugle is an instrument with military associations. In

particular, it's the instrument used to play "Taps" at soldiers' funerals.

This presumably is meant to call to mind all the towns left with half or more of
their young men dead.

There sure is a lot of sad music in this short poem, although the music of
these bugles is a bit more literal than those scary sounding choirs. There's no
metaphor here. That bugle music is all too real.

Line 9
What candles may be held to speed them all?

Now our speaker wants to know what candles all these mourners can hold in
honor of these fallen soldiers.

what rituals can people possible perform to help these soldiers pass on
peacefully (to speed them)? Rituals like, say, lighting candles in churches.

So then we might think of these candles as a metaphor for the larger

ceremonies we hold when attempting to honor those killed in action.

Lines 10-11
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

There are no candles here.

Our speaker brushes off the idea of lighting candles. What's the point of that?
He instead turns our attention to tears, which, if you think about it, are also a
sort of ritual that marks the soldier's death, although less fancy (and probably
more sincere).

This reference to what's "in their eyes" could refer both to the tears of the
soldiers' sons, and to the tears of the soldiers themselves. We're not quite
sure yet to whom that pronoun refers, so we'll just have to roll with it.

We don't know about you, but those words "shine" and "glimmer" remind of
the candles from line 9, even as we know we're now talking about tears.

Those two words make a sort of link, so that we know that the tears are
standing in for the candles.

instead of tears we have "holy glimmers," and instead of deaths we have

"goodbyes." Here "Holy glimmers and goodbyes" certainly sound more lofty
and noble than tears and death, but when we think about it, we're still talking
about human pain and suffering.

Owen is emphasizing the emotional aspect of griefthe private mourning that

goes on. Holding a public vigil is nowhere near as poignant as actual tears.
They're what counts.

Line 12
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

The pale, drained faces of girls will stand in for the cover on the dead soldiers'
coffins.

A pall is the cloth typically draped over a coffin, so in this case, the girls' pale
faces will be metaphorically draped over the soldiers' coffins, sending them
off in style.

The drained (sad, shocked) faces of girls probably refers to the significant
others and/or daughters of the soldiersthe women who are left behind by
war.

This line brings our attention to the suffering caused by the death of the
soldiers, not only to the soldiers themselves but also to their towns and
families.the girls' grief is what really counts.

In this way, our speaker is not letting the funeral ritual get away with seeming
somber and noble; he's forcing it to take on the weight of the real suffering
that surrounds it.

Line 13
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

"The tenderness of patient minds" will be like the flowers put on the soldiers'
graves.

It could be that our speaker is holding up tender, patient minds in contrast to

those who are all eager and excited about war.

In that way, this line could be telling us that the only positive tribute to the
dead soldiers comes from the tender thoughts and concerns of those who

have more patient, sensitive minds. Those who are really concerned about
their safety and the danger they're in, and mourn their losses.

Maybe these minds should be a little less patient, and a little more eager to
bring the boys home.

Line 14
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Our speaker ends with an image of blinds being drawn shortly before dark.

All that pacing is enhanced by the fact that this line, unlike many of the ones
that have come before, is written in perfect iambic pentameter. That meter
gives the line a somber cadence; it really lands.

The drawing of blinds certainly works on one hand as an image of death. The
families that have lost young men are the ones closing the blinds, as a sort of
matching image to the closing and ending of a life.

It also works as an image of civilians at home, with the drawing down of blinds
acting as a symbol for the way they're keeping out the realities of the war.
They don't want to be troubled by it. These folks will wave their flags by day,
and close their blinds at night, so they don't have to see the darkness, the
terrible realities of the war.

nobody! It's a passive sentence, which makes it seem like the blinds are
drawing themselves down. Nobody's in charge here. No one's responsible.

This is like when you might say, "The cookies were eaten," or "there was an
eating of the cookies" when you don't want to admit, "I ate the cookies."

Of course this passive reading lends itself to a more negative reading of Line
13. Tender, patient minds might be more likely to draw down blinds and block
out the real horrors the fighting men are facing.

Analysis
In "Anthem for Doomed Youth," war is not what we might expect. Owen is all about
exploring how war can twist the way we see the world; men become cattle, artillery
shells become choirs, and tears become candles. Things in a world at war are not as
they seem. In our speaker's eyes, the rituals of mourning the fallen become
mockeries, because they ring so hollow in the face of war's true horrors.

Line 1: Using a simile to compare the battlefield deaths of soldiers to the

slaughter of cattle conveys both the inhumanity of these soldiers' deaths, and
also that they just might be dying without really understanding why. They're
headed off to slaughter, no questions asked.

Line 2: Attributing anger, a very human emotion, to the guns, which are mere
machines is the first instance of personification in a poem that uses an
awful lot of personification. It's interesting to note that while the soldiers are
being dehumanized, the instruments of war are actually, in a strange and
terrifying way, becoming more human.

Line 3: The anaphora at the beginning of this sentence (starting with "Only
the," just like the line before) helps build momentum, since when we hit the
phrase a second time we pay a little more attention. If something's repeated
it's supposed to be important, right? Plus, that momentum and the repetition
of "only" add to the tension and horror of the battlefield, where there's nothing
but shells and dying men.

Line 3: The alliteration at the end of the line"rifles' rapid rattle"is another
way of grabbing our attention and building the intensity. Ramping up the
momentum and intensity is obviously very important here, since our speaker's
throwing us into the middle of a war zone, and must get the sheer terror
across to us through the language.

Line 7: The implied metaphor here (the shells are demented choirs)
continues the trend of personifying the weapons of war, but we should also
notice that it goes the other way as well by turning humans and human
institutions (choir members and churches) into inanimate weapons. The
metaphor, by comparing them, blurs the lines between a choir singing for the
glory of God and country, and the shelling that just might be a result of, or at
the very least related to, that same nationalistic and patriotic fervor.

If you've got soldiers dying out in the trenches, chances are you've got some
mourners back home. And the woeful widows and forlorn family members are
having quite a different experience than those fighting guys out there in the heat of
battle. So while the soldiers die senselesslylike cattlethe men and women back
home are forced to try to make sense of it all with grieving rituals, songs, funerals
and the like. But can those rituals ever equal the true experience of war? Probably
not, says Owen.

a rhetorical question. These "passing-bells" are a traditional (and religious)

way to mark someone's death. But when thousands die at once on the
battlefield, no bell rings for the individuals. And are there any sort of bells

ringing out the deaths of these soldiers? Owen answers us with a

resounding no, which is implied by the lines that follow.

Line 2-4: So instead of the ritual of "passing-bells," we're stuck with endless
machine gun fire. That sound is a stand-in for the more traditional ritual of
prayer.

Line 5: Bells? Prayers? No, says Owen, they're nowhere to be found on the
battlefield. And that means that when we perform these rituals at home, we're
really just making a mockery of the real stuff that's going down on the front.

Line 6: Funerals often have a song or two to send off the dead, right? But
there are no funerals on the battlefield, and that means that artillery shells will
have to metaphorically stand in for the choirs of a church.

Line 9: Here we are with another mourning ritual (the lighting of candles) and
another rhetorical question.

Line 10: In this line, the ritual of candle lighting is replaced by the much more
sincere act of crying.

Line 12: And the ritual of putting a pall on a coffin is replaced here by the more
sincere image of a grieving face.

Line 13: The metaphor here connects the ritual of putting flowers on a grave
with the patience and tenderness of those waiting at home. It might be
suggesting that the compassion of others is as useful to the dying soldier as
flowers on his grave (so, not very useful). Or it might be contrasting the two,
with the compassion being a much more fitting and suitable way of mourning
than the act of bringing flowers to a gravestone.

Line 14: This last line, as you can probably tell, is an image. But it's also
a symbol that works in a number of ways. First, the setting of dusk reminds
us (as if we need reminding at this point) of death. depict the much more
sincere, ritual-less private grief that the mourners experience, when all the
pomp and circumstance of a ceremonial funeral is over, and they're left alone.

Sonnet, Iambic Pentameter

"Anthem for Doomed Youth" is a sonnet written mostly in iambic pentameter.

Owen went old school on "Anthem for Doomed Youth." He chose the Petrarchan
sonnet form from way way back, but then he added a little dose of Big Willy and went
for the more Shakespearean rhyme scheme of ABABCDCD EFFEGG.
A change of course, a transition between ideas, a problem and then its solution. In
the case of "Anthem for Doomed Youth," the shift is between the battlefield, and the
quieter, less action-packed world of civilians at home.
An iamb is a rhythmic foot (yep, foot) made up of a stressed and unstressed syllable
(da-DUM) and pentameter means there are five of those feet in a row. That makes
for about ten syllables per line and a rhythm like "and each slow dusk a drawingdown of blinds" (14). Of course, in this poem as in many, it's more of a prevailing
pattern than a strict rhythm that must always be used.
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? (1)
Only the monstrous anger ofthe guns

it's World War I, folks, and we're in the trenches.

The effect is that we can be crouching in a trench one moment, listening to shells
being fired, and then standing with a soldier's family at his funeral the next. And, in
addition, we can simultaneously hear a prayer and rifle fire (or a choir and artillery
shells) blended together in a sort of terrifying medley.
They didn't call World War I The Great War for nothin'. It affected everyone and
everything; even the simple act of lowering one's blinds at the end of the day is
imbued with the sorrows of warfare..
The weird part is that first word, "Anthem." a usually rousing popular song that
typifies or is identified with a particular subculture, movement, or point of view
(anthems of teenage)
An anthem for a doomed youth is no anthem at all. It's a dirge.
The speaker of "Anthem for Doomed Youth" never says the words soldier or war. He
never names a country or particular dispute. In a way, he's signaling to us that this
poem is not about specific battles or individual loves lost. Nope, Owen is writing all
about a much more universal topic: the terrible costs and realities of all wars, and the
inability of our rituals to alleviate the death and suffering it brings about.
a disembodied speaker is that he's got a sort of bird's-eye view. He has no trouble
jumping from image to image, and he can bound with the greatest of ease from the
battlefront, to a church funeral, to a house where the blinds are closed. He sees it all,
knows it all, and isn't afraid to share it all.