The use of language techniques in Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' Anonymous 11th Grade

Anthem for Doomed Youth is a poem written by Wilfred Owen. Anthem is written as a piece of mourning about the soldiers lost in WWI, this being especially ironic as Wilfred Owen himself died in World War I, two weeks before the Armistice. Anthem was written in 1917, when Owen was healing in a Scottish hospital after sustaining an injury during battle. Owen was interested in exploring the idea of why the war was occurring in the first place.

Similar to the style of Dulce et Decorum Est, Anthem for Doomed Youth explores the darker side of war, and it represents the massacre of thousands of young men. The very title of the poem describes what the poem is about, a song for young men destined to die in the war. Owen used his personal memories and experiences to illustrate the slaughter of the men, saying that “these who die as cattle,” this comparison directly compares men to cattle which are often reared to slaughter, the same as these men. Owen also talks of the rifles pattering “out their hasty orisons,” which illustrates that the prayers for the deaths are not recited, except for with the “stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle.” This links in to the glowing contrast that repeats in the poem, as the words switch from describing the...