Anthem for Doomed Youth

Description

Wilfred Owen (1893 – 1918) was recovering from shell shock at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh when he wrote this inspired lament for the lives lost in the Great War. The poet and soldier was one of the most well-known authors of war poetry in England, who have used the war’s tragic and oftentimes horrifying events as an outlet for their artistic inspiration.

Written in 1917, the poem combines the traditional style of a Petrarchan sonnet, but also uses a different rhyme scheme – that of an English sonnet. Commenting on his act of rejecting his religion two years earlier, the anthem is mainly a poem dedicated to the families of those affected by the war. It makes particular emphasis on the battles of the Somme and of Passchendaele, and refers to some of the bloodiest events in recent history.

Owen has a great deal to thank his newfound friend, Siegfried Sassoon, a fellow poet whom he had met in the hospital, and who had agreed to help him refine his poetic works. Sassoon’s inspired impact on the final version of Anthem for Doomed Youth included his choosing of the word “doomed” – instead of Owen’s initial “dead” – and several other corrections, such as the well-known epithet of “patient minds.”

The anthem achieved remarkable popularity throughout the following years, being used as reference throughout modern popular culture, and even adapted to song at various events. Although short, it resounds with Wilfred Owen’s melodious yet chilling words, remaining as a testament to the many lives lost in the war’s hopeless struggles, and as a warning to future generations.

Anthem for Doomed Youth is a must-read for anyone who would be interested in WWI literature, and who would want to feel as close to the battlefield of the Great War as possible, and read through Wilfred Owen’s vivid account of the tragic events.
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