War And The Use Of Religion example essay topic

The sonnet 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', by Wilfred Owen, criticizes war. The speaker is Wilfred Owen, whose tone is first bitter, angry and ironic. Then it's filled with intense sadness and an endless feeling of emptiness. The poet uses poetic techniques such as diction, imagery, and sound to convey his idea. The title, 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', gives the first impression of the poem. An 'anthem', is a song of praise, perhaps sacred, so we get the impression that the poem might me about something religious or joyous.

However, the anthem is for 'Doomed Youth' which is obviously negative. The title basically summarizes what the poem is; a mixture of thoughts related to religion and death, irony, and cynicism. The poem doesn't slowly start to focus on the point he's making: there is an immediacy of war with the usage of present tense. Plus, it starts with a rhetorical question. With the rhetorical questions, he says that the dead soldiers, or 'cattle', die insignificantly, for there are no 'passing-bells' for them. Furthermore, he is emphasizing the vast number of the dead by meaning that there wouldn't be enough bells, or time to ring the bells for each soldier.

The speaker continues by answering his own question with lines filled with onomatopoeia, personification, assonance, and alliteration: the 'only's ubstitute for the bells are the bullets fired during war by the 'stuttering rifles' and the 'guns' with the 'monstrous anger'. This type of beginning sets out a solid foundation for the poem: it already gives the reader a strong idea of what the intentions of the poet are. The poem continues the theme of negativity when the speaker criticizes the use of religion throughout war, and possibly questions God. By using things as sacred things as 'prayers', 'bells' and 'choirs' as tools to mourn the insignificant 'cattle', Owen says that the dead would only be mocked. The vast number of dead 'cattle' is described by Own when he says that there aren't enough 'candles' to 'speed them all', and there aren't any official funerals, but they can only be mourned by releasing their 'holy glimmers of good-byes' and that 'the pallor of girls brows shall be their pall'.

The climax in irony is 'Shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells'; however, just as the poems irony climaxes, we are taken away from the war to the 'sad shires'. Furthermore, the last two lines of the octet are transition lines: they prepare you for the sestet by slowing the pace and softening the tone, 'And bugles calling for them from sad shires. '. The sestet of the poem, by using strong religious motifs, concentrates on what will happen after the war: about the friends and families left behind.

Lastly, it is stated that for the 'patient minds', each day passes by very 'slow' and they 'draw down' their 'blinds' as if slowly getting rid of any hope left. Nevertheless, they are finally in serenity. The poem is divided into two different ideas. The first part's tone is at first violent, firm and negative; while the second part's is miserable and un hopeful. The mood of the octet and sestet is similar to their tone: angry and depressive.

Throughout the sonnet, Owen has used two rhetorical questions: one at the beginning of the octet and one at the beginning of the sestet. The diction and the actual poetic techniques used in the poem all have strong effects and increase the power of the poem. The poet uses a rhetorical question in the beginning of both sections of the poem. This gives the reader an idea of what the whole section is going to be about, because he answers the questions himself throughout the sections, and then expands his thoughts.

Furthermore, by asking the questions, he is questioning war and religion. The poet uses personification, alliteration, and onomatopoeia all in just two lines: '... Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle... ' The fury and evilness of the guns is presented to us with the personification 'monstrous anger of the guns'. This is important as it basically gives us the lasting impression that guns, or the actual people behind the war are terribly vice, and the guns, or the soldiers are furious.

The onomatopoeia 'stuttering rifles' actually sounds like the guns, so you feel like you are in the battlefield. That feeling is continued, making you feel like there are endless gun shots coming towards you, with the alliteration 'riles' rapid rattle'. The poet uses alliteration many more times in the poem and creates strong effects: In the eighth line, '... sad shires', the 's's sound creates endless sadness itself, eleventh line, 'Shall shine the hold glimmers of good-byes', with the context, the 's' creates a holy sounds, which contributes to the religion theme, where the 'g' creates a gloomy affect, and lastly line fourteen, '... dusk a drawing-down of blinds. ', the 'd' creates a an image of an endless, rough road. The main themes of the poem are religion and war, and there are many words to stress these themes. There isn't actually a lot of war vocabulary; however, the adjectives used, such as 'monstrous', 'anger', 'stuttering', etc... empowers the war diction such as 'gun', 'rifle', 'bugles' and 'shells'.

All of these words are in the octet: there is no presence of war vocabulary in the second part of the poem. The religion vocabulary on the other hand is present throughout the poem. In the octet, it is used to mock religion, whereas in the sestet, they are used in a 'holier's else. Throughout the poem, there is an obvious presence of negativity. Besides the actual content, there is a lot of special diction used to reinforce the negativity: first in the title 'Anthem for Doomed youth'.

The theme of negativity continues with the question used in the beginning of both the octet and the sestet, and questions give a sense of uncertainty, doubtlessness, and negativity, but also, Owen uses them to make a point. This theme is continued with negative and pessimistic words such as only, no, nor, demented, wailing, sad, mourning, not, and slow. Some of these words have been used more then once and often used closely, which strengthens the effect. In the end, the poem 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', by Wilfred Owen, criticizes war, and the use of religion to mourn the dead soldiers, while pitying the mourners. To strengthen his views, he uses strong diction, imagery and sound. Word count: 1,181.