Wilfred Owen's “Anthem for Doomed Youth” presents a poignant portrait of dying soldiers. These young men, he says, “die as cattle.” They are guided in their passage from life to death not by the voices of their loved ones, nor by “prayers nor bells” nor candles. Rather, their deaths are accompanied by “the monstrous anger of the guns.” These young soldiers die to the sound of rifle fire and to the “shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells.” This is the only send-off the soldiers receive as they journey into death.

In the poem's second stanza, the speaker describes the light in the eyes of these young soldiers. No one is standing beside them with a comforting candle. Yet they remember their homes and their loved ones, and for a brief time, this brings a light to their eyes that shines “the holy glimmers of goodbyes.” Most of these men will not receive a traditional funeral service, for they will be buried near the battlefields where they fell. Their palls will be replaced the be pallor on the brows of their sisters and sweethearts and friends. The flowers they might have had will instead be the “tenderness of patient minds,” the memories of loved ones left behind to grieve. The dusk will have to serve as the “drawing-down of blinds,” the entering into mourning.