NARRATIVE FORM
“Poetry of the first world war!”
Daniel Duke
817101
Contents
Introduction
Main
Conclusion
Appendices
 “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen
 Prefatory note to the anthology, ‘Poems of Today’ (1916)
Bibliography
Introduction
The objective of this paper is to look at the various uses of narrative devices in
the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ (Wilfred Owen, 1916). I will also take into
consideration his life experiences, and how these are put across to the reader in
the decisions the author makes in terms of the poetical style used.. I will use
various tools of narrative form to study this piece, these include looking at it
from semantic, pragmatic, and rhetorical points of view.
Wilfred Owen had a much more down to earth upbringing compared to many
other war poets of his time, this was due to his fathers early bankruptcy.
In
1911 he went to work for a vicar in Oxfordshire, and by 1913 told him of how he
put literature above religion, which resulted in some painful scenes eventually
ending in his nervous breakdown. To deal with this breakdown, Owen travelled
to Rome, whereupon he wrote his first ‘war poem’ ‘Uriconium, an Ode’.
In
September 1915 he returned to England to enlist in the war effort, by late 1916,
the imagery put forward by ‘Poems of Today’ (1916) had inspired him to write
his ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, this was due to such key sentences as ‘…and of
Love’s viol, and the bugle-call of endeavour, and the passing-bell of Death.
[Emphasis by Jon Stallworthy].
Main
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ was written in the poetical style of a Petrachan
Sonnet. This is a poem of two stanzas; an 8-line octave sets the scene for the
poem, creating such images and sounds of the battle field as ‘monstrous anger’,
and ‘wailing shells’. Whereas the concluding sestet begins to delve into Owens
feelings of what it would feel like to die on that battle field, using such powerful
religious connotations, similar to those types of death that are spoken of in
church, of eternal light and peace, ‘what candles may be held’.
This slow and
silent death is shown in much greater depths by the rhyme scheme he uses,
most war time poems such as Rupert Brookes’ ‘The Soldier’, use the form
ABABCDCD EFGEFG. In contrast, Owens’ rhyme scheme uses the same generic
scheme for the octave, but becomes harder to read in terms of rhyme in the
sestet with the first line not being repeated for a few lines, as though the
narrator forgot about it, adding it a bit late (ABABCDCD EFFEGG), thus creating a
feeling of how the world was blurring through his eyes as he passed on, with
reality no longer stringing together as it should have, loosing all cohesion. The
authors use of rhyming couplets is also an interesting aspect, particularly in this
piece, as we can see there are two couplets, and are both in the closing sestet
(lines 2&3, and lines 5&6). This rhyme scheme gives the feeling of the narrator
trying to thread together extra cohesion, making things work for a better
understanding of what is happening. The overall style of this poem bears a close
relation to Wilfred Owens stand-point, an anti-war poet, and as such had
concerns with understanding where the honour was in death.
This poem was
written in the first tense, the reasoning for this is to make it much more
personal, bringing the reader into the situation as if they were there. This is a
key rhetorical tool in getting people to understand what you are trying to
persuade them to believe.
The religious semantic field is used to great extent in this poem with words such
as ‘choirs’, ‘orisons’, and ‘holy glimmers’. This not only creates connotations of
death and spirituality, but also shows Owens feelings that throughout his life,
religion has slowly deteriorated in its significance to him, ‘Not in the hands of
boys, but in their eyes shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes’.
This
semantic field is emphasised from within the title of the piece, setting the tone
for how it should be understood, creating various connotations, these were for
religion ‘doomed’, patriotism ‘anthem’, and the dying ‘youth’.
The concept of
youth strangely isn’t mentioned into the sestet except for in the title even though
it sets out with it as a key theme, and any connotations of youth are produced by
the religious semantic field and boy choirs such as, ‘of mourning, save the
choirs’. This imagery of the choirs, is particularly noticeable due to the repetition
used on the subsequent line, ‘shrill, demented choirs’.
This use of youthful
imagery is to slowly get the reader prepared for the idea that the person dying is
young, and how sad this is. Another interesting point to note is that in the same
line as the second repetition is the use of personification ‘wailing shells’, this not
only adds atmosphere, but if we look at the poem, we can see that the use of
personification is then repeated at the end of the following line ‘sad shires’. This
usage of personification and its repetition is there to help in creating atmosphere,
and to make it feel as though the environment is alive, whether it be in nature,
or by the violent attitudes of war.
Owens usage of similes and Metaphor’s are of particular interest in this poem, as
these rhetorical devices are normally used to emphasise the set semantic field,
but within this poem it seems they have very little to do with religion. The only
simile in the piece is on the first line, and is used to create the imagery of the
soldiers ‘who die as cattle’.
This is a particularly powerful usage of such
rhetorical devices, especially when used right at the beginning as it helps set the
authors feelings about war. It does this by describing the soldiers in terms of
how they were treated as pieces of meat, and could be replaced. In contrast to
this, it is interesting to note that the only metaphor in the piece, also concludes
the poem with ‘and each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds’. This metaphor
rounds off the piece nicely, because although in literal terms it is talking of the
end of the day, we can also see that pragmatically it also represents the end in
the life of the narrator. The use of these two rhetorical devices to begin and end
the poem are also important mood setters, people usually remember the
beginning and end of things, and using these tools as well, make those two lines
even more prominent and memorable.
Phonology as a written tool is used to much depth within this piece, in the third
line, Owen writes the words ‘Stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle’, this alliteration creates
an Onomatopoeic effect in creating the sounds of the guns. But we must also
consider that this poem was written whilst a patient at Craiglockhart hospital,
where he was suffering from shell shock.
This stuttering sound could then
instead be attributed to the stuttering of the war scarred patients which were
residents of the hospital with him. This is an interesting use of a euphemism,
because instead of using it to conceal a more devastating subject matter, he
uses the imagery of war, to hide the personal nature of his problem, showing
how he wants every word to focus on the global issue, not getting to personal or
self obsessed as some of the other poets of the first world war did. Assonance is
also used repeatedly throughout the poem, with the letters ‘O’ and ‘S’.
The
consistent use of the letter ‘O’ in the final four lines of the Octave is noticeable
‘Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs’, because as well as the creation of a
gloomy atmosphere, it also slows the reader down, as though pausing in a
speech, allowing them to take in what they have read, and create personal
emotions on the topic. The use of sibilance in this piece is also quite prominent
with ‘Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds’.
This creates a powerful
atmosphere throughout the reading of the poem because it sounds as though
there are noises in the background, voices we cannot quite hear, it also creates a
sound of steam, as though the narrators life is slowly dissipating into the
atmosphere, and slowly coming to a halt, phonetically sounding similar to the
way a steam train would have sounded whilst stopping at a station.
Conclusion
In analysing this classical poem, and considering the different aspects of
narrative form, with a brief background into the authors’ life, we can see how
powerful these tools are when used correctly. We read this piece, and using the
authors’ toolkit of various phonetical, rhetorical, and poetical devices, we are
enthralled by the new world which is grown around us. We are brought in with
the narrator, and shown the life to which he led, and understand (and potentially
agree with) the feelings he had towards it. These poems are a lot more intense
upon the senses than stories are, particularly modern day ones, this just goes to
show the talent that needs to go into a poem to get across all this emotion in
just 14 lines of text, as well as a deep understanding in the art of persuasion and
lexical manipulation.
Appendices
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’
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.
Appendices
‘Prefatory note to the anthology, ‘Poems of Today’’
This book has been compiled in order that boys and girls, already perhaps
familiar with the great classics of the English speech, may also know something
of the newer poetry of their own day. Most of the writers are living, and the rest
are still vivid memories among us, while one of the youngest, almost as these
worlds are written, has gone singing to lay down his life for his country’s cause
[…] there is no arbitrary isolation of one theme from another, they mingle and
interpenetrate throughout, to the music of Pan’s flute, and of Love’s viol, and the
bugle-call of Endeavour, and the passing bell of Death.
[Emphasis by Jon Stallworthy]
Bibliography
Stallworthy, J. 2002 Anthem for Doomed Youth: Twelve soldiers of the first world
war. London: Constable Robinson & Imperial War Museum