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Anthem for Doomed Youth Quotes - Coggle Diagram
Anthem for Doomed Youth Quotes
'Can patter out their hasty orisons.'
The 'hasty orisons' are the fact that the soldiers don't even have time to pray and that the noise of the shells drown out their prayers, emphasising the godlessness of trench warfare.
The prays could also be done 'hasty' because of shear panic as well as them praying to be saved from the war.
'And bugles calling for them from sad shires.'
The 'bugles' can show military remembrance in 2021, however, in the time context of the war, these bugles would be a call for the young boys to enlist.
The 'sad shires' show the countrysides that recruited pals battalions which show the mourning of these boys as entire generations were wiped out in some areas.
'Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, --'
The '--' creates a silence that creeps through, this shows the lack of remembrance for these men and gives a pause in the poem.
'What passing-bells for these who dies as cattle?'
The passing bells are a symbol of funeral bells and church bells, which is the lexis of religion.
The interrogative questions and provokes an answer of response about the futility of war.
The use of cattle dehumanises the soldiers and treats them like young men going to the slaughter by the hand of the establishment.
'Only the monstrous anger of the guns.'
The repetition of only shows war as meagre.
The guns are personified as angry and destructive which is a reminder of the mechanisation of war.
It undermines the huge sacrifice of the men.
'Only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle'
The use of the 'rifles rapid rattle' is aural imagery and alliterative, mimicking the sounds of the guns in the trenches which is onomatopoeic.
'Stuttering' is also onomatopoeic as well as discordant and staccato.
'No mockeries for them; no prayers nor bells'
This is a negative representation of the home front as no rites of mourning are performed for all the men being sacrificed.
'The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;'
This conceit shows that the shells are personified as wailing, that even they disagree with the horror of the war. This juxtaposes the shells destructiveness with their sadness.
'Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.'
The 'holy glimmers of goodbyes' could be the truth of war, but also religious imagery of heaven, that they're seeing the light before they die.
'And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds'
The 'and' and 'each' shows that someone dies everyday, which personalises the soldiers and humanises them.
The use of 'slow' creates the solemnity of grief and slowness of time within grief but also that the war has been prolonged and is slow.
The 'dusk' could show the light that slowly fades within the soldiers, whether that be their moral or life and that darkness draws in.
The 'drawing-down of blinds' which is alliterative could show the ignorance of the home front to the horrors of war, as they are choosing to shut them out.
This could also show a rite a grief that would've been performed by many women on the home front, which shows the finality of death.
'Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,'
The 'flowers' could show the flowers placed on the graves of the dead but could also represent in 2021 the poppy fields that grew after ww1.
The 'tenderness of patient minds' could show that Owen asks for the girls to have understanding and empathy for the soldiers coming back from the war or have died.
'What candles may be held to speed them all?'
The candles show funereal imagery and the that they should be held to help send the boys to heaven or even just out of the trenches quicker.
'Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes'
The eyes show that these boys are heroes because of their humanity and that they have witnessed the truth of war.
The eyes could also show that these boys are already dead or have one foot in the grave.
'The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;'
The 'pallor' pale colour could connote the loss these girls are feeling and the use of girls shows the propaganda that used women to try and enlist men.
The modal verb 'shall' shows the inevitability of death for these boys in war.