Anthem for Doomed Youth

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Anthem for Doomed Youth (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)

The Poem

Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth” asks what burial rites will be offered for the soldiers who die on the battlefields of World War I (1914-1918) and argues that, in place of a normal funeral, these men “who die as cattle” will receive, initially, a parody of funeral rites, enacted by the noise of guns, rifles, and “wailing shells,” and later the more authentic rites of mourning supplied by the enduring grief of family and friends at home. The poem thus begins in a mood of bitterness and irony, but as the focus shifts from the battlefield to the...

[The entire page is 1620 words long]

See Also:

• Wilfred Owen (Cyclopedia of World Authors)
• Wilfred Owen (Poetry)