Anthem for Doomed Youth

by Wilfred Owen

What do we need to know to analyse this poem successfully?

About the Poet

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

Form

Sonnet (in rhyme scheme of an English sonnet)

Context

Written in 1917, Craiglockhart War Hospital

Language• anthem• passing bells• cattle• orisons• mockeries• mourning• demented• shells• bugles• speed• pallor• pall• drawing-down

Form

Sonnet: • 14 lines• Each line has ten syllables – iambic

pentameter• Shakespearean rhyme scheme:

abab/cdcd/efef/gg • Shakespeare wrote many famous sonnets• Sonnets usually address themes of love