Anthem for Doomed Youth

An anthem is a song or hymn of praise. The appearance of the word in the title of this poem is ironic. The subjects of the poem—the “youth”—are “doomed” to die. There is nothing to praise or celebrate in this antiwar poem, which rejects religious and patriotic sentiment that would support and glorify the war. The poem can also be understood as a lament (an expression of grief) or an elegy (a mourning of the dead).

In Line 1, “passing-bells” refers to bells that are rung to announce a death or a funeral. There will be no such bells on the front to commemorate the men who are slaughtered like “cattle” (Line 1). They die in vast numbers, cut down by the modern machinery of war, in a way that undermines their humanity, their intrinsic worth. Lines 2-4 maintain the picture of the mayhem created by modern war and consist of a grim, ironic metaphor. The sounds of the guns and rifles, which are presented in language resembling the sounds it denotes (a literary device known as onomatopoeia) make up all the bells or “orisons” (prayers) (Line 4), the men will receive. The staccato sound of machine-gun fire is thus the grotesque prayer offered up to heaven. However, in Line 5 the speaker shows he is actually not one to be advocating such religious offerings as “prayers or bells”; he describes these as “mockeries” (Line 5) of the dead, so their absence can hardly be lamented. This suggests the speaker’s hostile attitude not toward the men and the need to commemorate what they had endured, but toward orthodox religion.

Behind this attitude is likely Owen’s disillusionment with the Church of England—a cynicism which could have been heightened by the church’s support of the war. The Church of England believed Britain was fighting a righteous, just war against a despicable enemy. It used reports of German atrocities to present the conflict as a holy war between good and evil; those who died on the side of the British and their allies were regarded as martyrs. Owen implies that the rituals of such a church are neither wanted nor appropriate in this desperate situation on the Western front. The jingoistic church is part of the problem, not the solution, and its formal rituals are an insult to the men dying in great numbers. The “shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells” (Line 7) emphasizes this point. It is a potent image that metaphorically links church choirs—perhaps singing patriotic and warlike hymns like “Onward Christian Soldiers” (which was popular at the time)—with deadly weapons of war.

Line 8 strikes a different note with musical imagery that, for the first time—unlike the choir and bell—is presented without irony. The “bugles” (Line 8) that call for the men come from the “sad shires” (Line 8) of England, as the country mourns its dead. A shire is a county in England, as in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and others. It was common for memorial services for the fallen to conclude with a bugle call.

The change of setting continues into the second stanza of the poem. If the first stanza is filled with the harsh cacophony of war and its terrible cost, the second is quieter, more tranquil, though still filled with grief. The attitude of the speaker toward official church services remains the same in both stanzas. Such services are inadequate memorials to the dead. Instead, the speaker turns to the private grief of those who loved the fallen men—perhaps members of their family. Beginning at Line 9, what is important is not the candles held by the boys at a religious service, which is an external action, but the distressed feelings of the boys themselves, as revealed in “their eyes,” in which “shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes” (Line 11), suggesting light and tears combined. The boys here may be the sons, younger friends, or brothers of those killed in the war. Their grief runs deep and there is something sacred about it—as the word “holy” reveals—but it has nothing to do with the trappings of a religious funeral or memorial service. It is about what people feel in the inner recesses of their being.

The same applies in Line 12, where the sorrow and grief felt by the wives, girlfriends, and perhaps daughters of the fallen soldiers, apparent in the “pallor” of their appearance, is a more fitting memorial than a “pall” (Line 12). A pall is a heavy cloth to cover a coffin or casket at a funeral. In military funerals, the pall is often a national flag. The speaker considers the signs of grief in a person—such as pallor of the skin—to be more significant and lasting than an external sign of grief or respect.

In Line 13, the speaker focuses attention on those who knew the dead soldiers. More important than any flowers that might be included in a funeral or memorial service is the “tenderness of patient minds” (Line 13). This could refer to family members, including those already mentioned and others: It could include friends or anyone else who knew the fallen men. The speaker attributes to them “patient minds” (Line 13), likely because they had to wait at home, possibly for a long time, while the young men fought at the front. Those who remained behind had to be patient because of the long stretches of time that passed without hearing from their loved one across the English Channel in France. There is a skill in waiting as well as in fighting, and Owen honors that in this line. Owen went through several drafts before he arrived at the phrase “patient minds”; earlier versions included “comrades’ minds” and “silent minds.” His use of the former suggests that at least in the initial stages of writing the poem, he was likely thinking of the friendship and warm camaraderie between the troops as they huddled in the trenches, helping one another to survive.

In the final line, the poet envisions a simple, daily act of remembrance as evening comes. The drawing of blinds or closing of curtains has long been symbolic of mourning, although less today than a hundred years ago. Here, the drawing of blinds during the hours of darkness is presented as a symbol of both continued mourning and remembrance.