Anthem For Doomed Youth Etc

This poem tries to stop young men from volunteering to go and fight in a war, and to let them see that war is not as what is was often imagined to be – glorious and sweet. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is also an anti-war poem, but it does not include the horrific imagery Of Dulcet et Decorum Est. In this poem, Owen explains that many young people die in war, and that the family also suffers from their relatives death. This poem discourages the families from sending their boys to war.
It is aimed at the parents, and through the poem, the parents can realize the pain of losing a son. Both anti- AR poems want to explain to people although aimed at different groups that war is not glorious and sweet, as it was believed to be. In this, the poems are very similar, but the methods used to achieve this differs greatly. “Dulcet et Decorum Est” gives a personal experience of a soldier, probably Owen himself, in battle. The first stanza explains just how tired and exhausting you can be after war-The atmosphere is depressive.
Owen uses words and phrases like “hags”, “sludge” and “drunk with fatigue”. The entire mood is depressive and exhausting, and makes the reader feel the draining effect of AR. In the second stanza, the mood changes drastically from being exhausted to energetic. This is what Owen describes to be “an ecstasy of fumbling”, which is an oxymoron, as ecstasy in usually associated with joy, and fumbling with awkwardness. It seems that a chlorine-gas bomb exploded near the soldiers, and panicle, they hastily put on their gas masks.

All but one manage to put the masks on in time. That man suffers grumblingly, as he is described to be burnt by the gas “like a man in fire or which is a substance that can eat flesh. “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. ” The Rene sea would be because of the effects of the chlorine gas – which is green, and the mask visor. The drowning effects would be because of the blood in his lungs, and the gurgling for air while he was dying. This is a good simile, because Owen compares the surrounding gas to a sea, in which he is safe, but the unprotected man is drowning.
The stanza ends with the line “He plunges at me, guttering chocking, drowning’. It is a very gruesome end to a very horrid stanza. This onomatopoeia in line sixteen makes the death sound very real, gruesome and sickening. The atmosphere Of this stanza is horrifying ND sickening. In the third stanza, the atmosphere changes again. The gas is gone, and they are loading up the dead and dying. The bodies are, however, not loaded onto the truck with respect; instead they are “flung’ in. This dehumidifies the dead, and it just shows that there is no time to honor the dead.
They are treated like garbage. Then the half dead man from the gas- attack is brought up again. He is in his final death stages. It is just as horrid as the second stanza. “the blood. .. Gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs… ” This is another onomatopoeia, and it is easy to imagine the final death scene. The sat part of the poem gives this statement after the grueling scene: “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie: Dulcet et Decorum Est Pro Patria Moor. In this, Owen explains, that if you could in some dream follow that horrific scene, and experience what the soldiers experienced, then nobody would enthusiastically tell desperate young men, about to go to war, seeking glory, that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country, as was often quoted by commanders. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is in the form of a Shakespearian sonnet, which is normally associated with love. This is very ironic, as this poem has very little to do with love – it has to do with death.
The word “Anthem” is mostly associated with pride and glory, but in the title, it symbolizes the guarantee and promise of dead young men. The first line asks a rhetorical question: “what passing bells for these who die like cattle? “, followed by “only the monstrous anger of the guns”. This means, that there are no church bells for those who are slaughtered like animals, there are only the loud and deadly guns on the battlefields. Immediately, this will strike especially parents, who will not want their children to die, especially if there is tot even glory or honor in the death.
No ceremony is held to honor the brave and dead there is only “angry’ gunfire. Then there is the wonderful phrase “stuttering rifle’s rapid rattle”. This is both an alliteration and an onomatopoeia. One can almost hear the deadly machine gun fire, ungracefully slaughtering thousands Of boys. Owen continues giving his description of the lack of glory for the young men, by saying “the shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells”. This is also a paradox, as choirs are usually associated with a church and happiness, but here it is the ‘song’ of shrill, howling shells.