Learning Objective To identify the structure of Anthem for
Doomed Youth and The Send Off To continue comparing and contrasting
both poems
Slide 2
What does the word structure mean?
Slide 3
Look at Anthem for Doomed Youth This poem takes the form of a
sonnet usually love poems or with a religious focus Owens use of a
sonnet structure is ironic as the theme is war/inevitable death and
his message is the pointlessness of war 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).
1.Is this the case here? 2.Is there a rhyme scheme? 3.Is Iambic
Pentameter used (de dum, de dum)?
Slide 4
Read the poem again: as you read I want to you to emphasise
(not shout!) the loud sounds in it and whisper the church imagery.
e.g.: What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the
monstrous anger of the guns. Sounds
Slide 5
The effect? In the octet (first 8 lines) Owen has used very
noisy and loud imagery to replicate the sound of war. In the sestet
(last 6 lines), Owen has done the opposite. The religious imagery
creates a still effect which conveys to the reader the death of the
soldiers killed in action.
Slide 6
Look at The Send Off Owen uses quite an unusual structure in
the poem: The are 8 stanzas which follow a pattern of a 3- line
stanza, followed by a 2-line stanza etc. There are 20 lines in the
poem. 1.Identify the rhyme scheme. 2.Identify the meter. He also
uses a combination of long and short lines. 3.What effect do the
short lines create?
Slide 7
Anti-war structure? The Send Off uses Iambic Pentameter,
although the lines are not of equal length. This gives the poem a
kind of unnatural rhythm. The rhyme scheme runs through the poem,
but it does not help the poem to flow. No only does Owens poem defy
authority with its anti-war theme, the structure he uses seems to
defy tradition which adds to the defiant mood of the poem.
Slide 8
Cyclical structure Owen opens The Send Off with men walking
Down the close, darkening lanes. He ends with the survivors walking
up half-known roads This juxtaposes men at the start to how they
are at the end and the damaging effects the war had on them. Key
word: Juxtaposition: placement of two things (usually contrasting
ideas) near each other for effect.
Slide 9
Past tense Underline the past tense verbs (doing words). What
does the past tense suggest? He also uses two auxiliary verbs
(which suggest future) Shall and May what do these words suggest?
These all add a sense of inevitable death.
Slide 10
Compare and contrast
Slide 11
Compare and Contrast THEMES Find similarities Inevitable Death
Sending soldiers to their death like cattle Set on the front line
Armchair Patriots Pointlessness of war/ anti-war Find differences
Conspiracy Dark Survivor guilt Set at home Youth
boys/innocence
Anthem for Doomed Youth Practice PEE Owen compares soldiers to
cattle. He asks the rhetorical question: What passing-bells for
these who die as cattle? Using the word cattle is a graphic way of
showing how the men had no control over their lives. Like cattle,
they were there to be slaughtered.
Slide 14
The Send Off Practice PEE From the opening line, Owen uses
language and imagery to convey his negative feelings of the war. He
uses the words: down, close and darkening. Using these words
creates an image in the readers mind of the impending doom that the
soldiers face as they embark on the train to face the horrors of
war