Arms_and_the_Boy_by_Wilfred_Owen

Compare the poets attitude and feelings towards the loss of young life in ‘ Arms and the Boy’ and ‘ Anthem for Doomed youth’ by Wilfred Owen. Armies in world war one often used underage soldiers. In the beginning of the war young boys were so enthusiastic to join the army that recruiting officers enlisted them regardless of their age. Towards the end of the war when the armys numbers where falling due to high death toll more underage soldiers where sent off to fight. The youngest British soldier known to have fought in the First World War is thought to have been 12 years old. This young soldier was described George Maher who was also a underage soldier of just 13 years old when he was sent to Somme. Mr Maher had told a recruiting officer that he was 18 to enable him join the army. Maher`s true age was revealed when he broke down in tears under shellfire before a officer. Owen is a English poet his poems describes the cruelty of war which he experienced during the his service on the western front. Owen was born on the 18 march 1893. In 1915 he signed upto the army he spent a year training in England in 1917 he was sent home suffering from shellshock he arrived at Craiglockhart hospital where he met Siegfried Sassoon who was already a published poet. Sassoon looked over Owens poems he gave Owen encouragement and introduced him to literary figures like Robert Graves.Reading Sassoon's poems and discussing his work with Sassoon revolutionised Owen's style and his conception of poetry. He returned to France in August 1918 and in October was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. On 4 November 1918 he was killed while attempting to lead his men across the Sambre canal at Ors. The news of his death reached his parents on 11 November, Armistice Day. Wilfred Owen’s poem Arms and the Boy is a subtle critism of war that asks deeper questions about violence in human society. “Let the boy try along this bayonet blade” is the first line in which the speaker uses euphemistic language to encourage that the boy be given weapons. This line offers the image of a underage soldier being recruited by a officer. The recruiting officer is teasing the boy ` let him try’ is degrading as he is already insinuating that boy will not survive the war he will be only able to ‘try’ fight for his country he will not succeed. Owen uses alliteration of ‘bayonet blade’ to describe how aggressive the weapons are which are being given to the innocent underage boy. Owen also personifies the steel which is ‘cold’ and has ‘hunger of blood’. The steel is emotionless if it is cold, the steel is also made to be animalistic with its ‘hunger of blood’. This makes the steel cold calculating and full of hatred it has been made only for the purpose of killing the enemy. Owen uses this device in “Insensibility” “chances strange again”. “blind, blunt bullet-heads”. Owen uses alliteration again here to describe the bullets are blind they do not know who they will kill or harm they rely on chance. The “blunt bullet” emphasises the pain and that there is no aggression in this killing it is not a calculated killing it is a “blind bullet” which has no control over who the bullet hits. “nuzzle in the heart” Owen here is using romantic language for the gentle euphemizing of killing this again is showing how they young soldiers lives are not going to last long at war. “sharpness of grief and death” this has a mental connotation as well as physical connotation due to it alluding to “grief and death” experienced by those who die and those who mourn this is a reminder that what may begin as inappropriate self-indulgence will result in misery. This appears to be a harsh reminder by the poet. “God will grow no talons” humans are not intended for war as nature and God has not given them weapons naturally. Therefore God is not supportive of the wars of men. The poem could therefore be seen as portraying war as a perversion of the natural order. Owen through the use of this religious imagery shows how God is not responsible it is the government who caused the war. This poem consists of three regular quatrains entirely in pararhymes which reflect the tone of the poem, so that in the first two stanzas, they are full of danger and peril like “blade-blood”, however in the final stanza religious imagery of God appears, they are aware of less sinister matters. “Anthem for doomed youth” The title “Anthem for Doomed Youth” conveys a gloomy feeling. A anthem usually is joyous song used in times of celebration but put with “ Doomed Youth” it implies towards feelings of sorrow. It also foretells of young people having no hope. The poem starts with soldiers “dying as cattle” this description shows how unpleasant war is. This description depicts multitudes of people being slaughtered and the nature of war to be full of mass deaths. Owen compares the soldiers to cattle as cattle are seen as beneath humans which the idea that the soldiers being sent off to war are being degraded and treated less than human. This line also presents the familiar image of a slaughter house where cattle are taken and killed like how soldiers were being taken to battle. Owen uses this animalistic view as it shows how officers needlessly send soldiers off to war without concern for them. Owen also uses a rhetorical question here to make the sentence more uncomfortable. “ No mockeries” Owen is showing how the soldiers were being mocked in life but now in death they will be mocked no more as in life they were mocked. When the soldiers left for war the soldiers left “ceremonies” and “prayers” but now in death the public and government do not care as they did not care they were sent to their deaths. The soldiers leaving to ceremony’s were lead into false hope as they were expecting to leave a hero and return a hero since they were ill prepared for what would actually happen to them when they were at the battlefield. This is why many of the underage soldiers would have broken down and suffered shellshock as they could not fully comprehend what the war entitled. The juxtaposition of “choirs” and “wailing shells” is a surprising metaphor which is colliding Gods world and the Devils world and bringing them together as one. “wailing shells” is also harsh language and gives images of the shells crying as they are regretting that they are killing the soldiers this is also personification of the soldiers. Owen can also be seen to shifting the blame away from the soldiers and putting the blame onto the actual weapons. “The pallor of girls brows shall be their pall” Here Owen illustrates the families reactions to finding that their loved ones have died. The dead soldiers do not get honoured by their family and friends. The family can only grieve at the sorrowful news. The last line “drawing-down of blinds” is symbolic of the family who is in mourning closing the curtains as a sign of respect this is also a peaceful action and shows how at every “dusk” more than one family will have been told of the death of their relative.