WILFRED OWEN
“Anthem for Doomed Youth”
“Dulce et Decorum est”
HIS LIFE Wilfred Owen was born the 18th of March 1893 in
United Kingdom. Brought up in an Anglican family, the influence of his
education remains visible in his poems and in their themes: sacrifice, Biblical language, his description of Hell.
He moved to Bordeaux (France) in 1913, one year later he was a private teacher in a prosperous family in the Pyrenees.
He enlisted in the Artists' Rifles on 21st October 1915. He was drafted to France in 1917, the worst war winter.
His total war experience was rather short: four months, from which only five weeks in combat.
He based his poetry on his experiences there. The war was ended on 11th November 1918 at 11
o'clock. Seven days before Owen had been killed in one of the last vain battles of this war.
“ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK5k
me0dCQY
“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 now for them; no prayers nor 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 patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. Wilfred Owen
VOCABULARY Anthem - ? passing-bells - a bell tolled to announce
someone’s death to the world. orisons - prayers, here funeral prayers mockeries - ceremonies which are insults. demented - raving mad bugles - a bugle is played at military
funerals (sounding the last post) shires - English counties and countryside
from which so many of the soldiers came pallor - paleness pall- a cloth, often of velvet, for spreading
over a coffin, bier, or tomb, also a coffin.
TRANSLATION
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