Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Alan Liu
Background Information
• It was written between September
and October 1917
• At the time, Owen was in
Craiglockhart War Hospital in
Edinburgh, and he was
under treatment for shell
shock.
• While Owen was under treatment,
he met Siegrfied Sassoon
• Sassoon helped Owen to edit and
polish the poem.
• Sassoon had made various changes
to the drafts
o “Anthem” was added to the title
o “Dead” was changed to “Doomed”
Style and
• Anthem forRhyme
the Doomed Youth has a rhyme scheme of
an English sonnet (Shakespearean sonnet). (Which is
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG).
• Sad shires are places where the soldiers come from, it is called sad
shires because their families are sorrowful for their loss. This shows
that although they are dying and sacrificing for their country
without any recognition, yet there are people out there in their
homes, people still remember their names, the only ones that
cared about them were their families.
• This is the end of the Octave, therefore Owen made this transition
to go on in the Sestete with more information about the families.
Sestet
• e
(line 9) What candles may be held to speed them all?
• For the second stanza of this poem, Owen approach the
trench miseries in a different perspective. He continues
with the attention is more on the family aspect.
• This is the second question asked by Owen.
• Candles in here are the candles used in churches for
ceremonies for the dead, in order to remember the dead.
Although as Owen mocked the ceremonies, he is now
comparing the traditional ways of death to a war death.
• “Speed them all” means sending hopes forward to the dead
and hoping them to get a better afterlife.
Sestet
•
e
(line 10)Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
• (line 11) Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.