1.  An explanation
and analysis of
Wilfred Owen‘s
poem by Francis
Gilbert for GCSE
English

2.  Understanding the context of
the poem:
 What anthem (representative
song) should there be for
today‘s teenagers? Eg choose
a suitable pop/hip-hop song?
Why choose it?
 How would you describe the
youth of today? Lost? Happy?
Worried? Anxious? What
adjective would you choose?
 What songs are suitable for
funerals?
 What songs/noises/things
would you definitely think
wouldn‘t be good?

3.  To learn about how
and why a poet uses
extended metaphors
in his poems.
 To learn about the
contexts of Wilfred
Owen‘s poetry.
 To learn how a poet
creates a
atmosphere of
horror and pity

4.  This was the ―break-through‖
poem for Wilfred Owen.
 At the beginning of the
war, Owen dreamed of being
a Romantic poet. He was
teaching in France and
returned to enlist in 1915.
 After training in Romford in
1916, he was sent out to the
front in the new year.
 He was only a few months on
the front but it shook him to
the core: he captured a
German dug-out, saw men
die horribly and one go blind
from gas (see The Sentry and
Dulce Et Decorum)

6.  Owen was put in a mental
hospital in
Edinburgh, Scotland called
Craiglockhart. It was an
enlightened place.
 There he met Siegfried
Sassoon, a famous poet
who‘d been put in the
mental hospital for
protesting against the war.
 Sassoon and Owen‘s
psychiatrist encouraged him
to start writing poetry again.
 Until then Owen‘s poetry had
mainly been very
―romantic‖, all about
nature…

7.  Religion. His mother, who he
was devoted to, was very
religious, but Owen rejected
religion after a bad
experience as an assistant to
a Vicar in Oxford before the
war. A double funeral of a
mother and her four-year-old
daughter shook him to the
core.
 Death.
 Nature.
 Young men. Owen was almost
certainly gay as was Sassoon.
 Poetry. The music and
texture of words…

9.  What passing-bells2 for these who
die as cattle? Only the monstrous
anger of the guns. Only the
stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can
patter out3 their hasty orisons.4No
mockeries5 now for them; no
prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of
mourning save the choirs, –The
shrill, demented6 choirs of wailing
shells; And bugles7 calling for them
from sad shires.8What candles9 may
be held to speed them all? Not in
the hands of boys but in their
eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers
of goodbyes. The pallor10 of girls'
brows shall be their pall; Their
flowers the tenderness of patient
minds, And each slow dusk11 a
drawing-down of blinds.12

10.  What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
 Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
 Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
 Can patter out their hasty orisons.
 No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor
bells;
 Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
 –The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
 And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
 What candles may be held to speed them all?
 Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
 Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
 The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
 Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
 And each slow dusk11 a drawing-down of
blinds.12

13.  Guns…

14. 

17.  Completely lethal
weapons. Certain
death if you‘re
anywhere near. If
you‘re not killed
by the blast, the
shrapnel gets you
destroying your
body…

18.  What candles may
be held to speed
them all?

24.  What passing-bells for these who die as
cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them from prayers or
bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing
shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
 What candles may be held to speed them
all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of silent maids,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of
blinds.

25.  Notes for students
 Anthem:1. A rousing or
uplifting song identified with
a particular group, body, or
cause.
 2. A song officially adopted
by a country as an expression
of national identity.
 Passing-bells: a bell rung to
announce a death or funeral.
 Hasty: quick, hurried
 Orisons: prayers
 Choirs: note the connection
to Keats‘ To Autumn, l.27:
‗Then in wailful choice the
small gnats mourn…‖

26.  Mockeries: Owen had been
religious but now felt
religion was a ―mockery‖
of life and felt the
ceremonies of religious
(prayers, bells, choirs)
were mockeries of life.
 Demented = completely
mad
 Bugles = wind instruments
played at funerals or
solemn occasions
 Shires = country districts.
Millions of young men
from the country died in
the 1st WW.

27.  ―Speed them all‖ = ―Help
them go quickly to
heaven.‖
 Pallor: Pale colour
 Pall: A cloth spread over a
coffin, hearse, or tomb.
 Line 14 Binyon‘s ‗For The
Fallen‘ is important here:
―At the going down of the
sun and in the
morning/We will
remember them.‖ The
drawing of blinds in a
house was common when
there had been a death…

28.  Before we look in detail at
this difficult
poem, underline all the
sounds in it!
 Can you guess what it‘s
about? Try your hardest!
 BIG POINT: the poem
makes a long comparison
between WHAT should be
the song for our young
people, and WHAT is. The
poem is as much about
what is NOT happening as
what IS happening. What
is not happening?

29.  What it is
about…you must
understand it
fully…
 What techniques a
poet uses to
achieve certain
effects…
 The possible
contexts of a
poem…

30.  Think of three questions
to ask about the poem
yourself…
 Line 1: what is the effect
of the simile that says the
soldiers ―die as cattle‖?
 Write out line 1 in your
own words, explaining it
clearly.
 The rest of the ―octet‖
(eight lines of the sonnet)
is a reply to the question
in line one. Explain these
lines in THREE sentences.
 What do the soldiers NOT
have as their funeral song?

31.  Line 9. Another
question. What does
this question mean?
 The rest of the sestet
(six lines that conclude
a sonnet) are a reply.
What do these lines
mean? Explain them in
your own words, using
selected quotation.
 The octet is full of noise
whereas the sestet has
images connected with
silence. Why is this do
you think?

32.  Why is it important to
understand the contexts of
this poem?
 What do you think of the
poem overall? What makes it
interesting and dramatic?
 Owen‘s great theme was the
―pity of war‖…In what ways
does this poem explore this
theme? (Classic essay
question!)

33.  This poem is a
lament for the
dead…
 Why is the youth
―doomed‖?
Doomed to die;
doomed to
madness; doomed
to unhappiness…

34.  This poem takes the ―form‖
of a sonnet – usually love
poems or with a religious
focus. What parts of the
poem focus upon religious
issues and what parts suggest
love? What is the main topic
of the poem?
 Sonnets often have the
structure of having eight
lines (the octet) where the
main point is set out, and
then six lines which conclude
the poem (the sestet). Is this
the case here?

35.  This poem was written in
a ‗mental hospital‘ for
shell-shock victims,
Craiglockhart, Edinburgh,
in Sept-Oct 1917.
Siegfried Sassoon helped a
lot with the composition
of the poem.
 What clues are there in
the poem that it‘s written
by someone very
―disillusioned‖ by the war?
 Is this poem ―patriotic‖?
Where do the poet‘s
sympathies lie?

36.  Owen‘s great
theme was the
―pity of war‖.
What images
suggest the ―pity
of war‖ in this
poem and why?

37.  Annotate the poem in your
book, making sure you note: what
the poem is about; the different
techniques the poet uses and WHY
he uses them; speculate about
WHY he might have written the
poem; note down your PERSONAL
responses, your thoughts and
feelings.
 EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:
 Either: write your own creative
response – an anthem for today‘s
youth: a poem, a story, a
picture, an article, music, a slide-
show of related images.
 Or: write a critical essay on the
poem, explaining why it is
effective.

38.  Other poems
powerfully
descriptive poems
about the horror of
war are relevant:
Futility
 Strange Meeting also
discusses the young
men who go to war.
 Spring Offensive and
The Sentry illustrate
the slaughter

39.  A good ―close‖
analysis of the
poem can be found
here:
 http://wilfredowe
n.org.uk/poetry/a
nthem-for-
doomed-youth
 Pick out FOUR key
points made on
the website.

40.  Review whether you
have learnt the
learning objectives –
if not, get a partner
to teach you!
 Teach the poem to
the person sitting
next to you;
 Summarise the poem
in ONE sentence.
 If the poem was an
object/person/animal
, what it be and why?