Wilfred
Essay # 4 This is an analysis of Wilfred Owens’ poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth.” Through many literary devices Owen wrote a descriptive poem portraying war and the hell he sees it as. With anaphora, personification, alliteration, and many other techniques he wrote a very powerful poem. This poem is written in the Shakespearian sonnet form. The rhyme scheme consists of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Through anaphora in lines two and three Owen makes the reader concentrate on the similarity of the lines. Through theses two lines the author is answering the question that he brought up in the first line of the poem that reads, “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” (1). He states through the repetition that is all that the youth he is writing about has left. Through the repetition of the word only he shows how in despair these youth are. The following line states that only these guns and horrible noises “Can patter out their hasty orisons” (4). With this line Owen is saying that to this youth that the only prayer being said is being said through the confusion of bullets flying and stunning noises. The word “patter” (4) shows how brief and constant these gunfire prayers are. Owen dramatizes this with line five where he says that these “orisons” (4) may not even count as full prayers when he states “No mockeries now for the; no prayers Jungst 2 or bells,”(5). In saying that Owen is shining light on the fact that when people speak of prayers they think of something lavish and drawn out with lots of so called “bells” (5).