In the second stanza, Brooke whole-heartedly declares that he will return to England what he has been given. In his poem, Brooke doesn’t criticise war or religion but emphasises whole-hearted readiness to return to England what he has been given. The spiritual being created and enriched by England is returned gratefully. Brooke doesn’t mention anything about the horrors of war. Even death is not presented as something repulsive or of a loss but instead as a repayment to his country. He feels indebted to England and is completely happy to settle his debt. He will return to England what she gave him – his “dust” and delightful “thoughts”.
Brooke’s poem has a confident tone of quiet conviction. The whole poem sounds proud and dignified. Much of the time Brooke just praises England and this makes the poem seem cheerful even. The first four lines of his poem are very patriotic “If I should die, think only this of me…In that rich earth a richer dust concealed”. Brooke says these lines in a quiet confident manner. The tone lightens from then, as he describes pleasant things like “flowers”, “love” and “rivers”. The beginning of the second stanza repeats the first line, and continues with a calm statement of returning England’s contribution – “And think, this heart, all evil shed away…” The poem ends with a peaceful tone “In hearts at peace, under an English heaven” reflecting Brooke’s contentment with England in every way.
The images in Brooke’s poem are those of the best things England has given him. In the first stanza “flowers”, “ways to roam”, “rivers”, “blest”, “suns of home” are tangible. These are appropriate because he is dealing with his physical make-up. In the second stanza, Brooke talks about the intangible things that England has given to him “sights and sounds”, “dreams”, “laughter” and “friends”. These have developed him spiritually. He also refers to “gentleness”, “peace” and “heaven” to suggest the richness of spirituality – recalling “richer dust” made by England. Such images imply the greatness of England and the tranquillity of the mind after death. The line “And think, this heart, all evil shed away” also gives the image of a good-natured soldier. This line suggests that if a person dies for England, all his immorality will be “shed”; death is a release from evil, leaving a pure spirit.
Owen condemns the wastefulness of war in the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. In war, numerous youths “die as cattle” as though Youth itself is decimated like animals. Young people at home suffer deeply in losing them. The result is as if Youth itself received a lethal wound, hence “Doomed Youth”. There are “no prayers, nor bells, nor…choirs” to mark the deaths of the young soldiers. This reference to the absence of “prayers…bells…choirs” and the cynical “mockeries…from prayers of bells” indicate Owen’s bitterness over the role of the church. He implies that the church has been powerless in helping to avert the war and is irrelevant once the killing has begun. Religion is usually associated with concern for mankind but in a war situation it helplessly witnesses the large-scale annihilation of young people. The church symbolized by hand-held “candles” and “pall” is dismissed from a place in the mourning. When Owen mentions that deaths were marked by the “monstrous anger”, “rapid rattle” and the “patter” of weapons, he implies that the weapons of war and men’s hatred are stronger than religion and its preachings. Owen’s anger against war and its wastefulness of young lives in the first stanza changes to grief and mourning for the lost youths in the second stanza. He shows the pain among the young boys and girls away from the battlefield as reflected in “the holy glimmers” of boys’ eyes, “the pallor of girls’ brows” and the “tenderness” or pain in their minds. Even nature seems to mourn when it “draws down the blinds” of the evening in the mass bereavement.
In ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, the tone has a powerful mixture of bitterness, anger and sarcasm. In the first stanza, the rhetorical – “What passing-bell for these who die as cattle?” is sharp with sarcasm. A bell is tolled at usual death. These men “die as cattle” but not even a bell was sounded and even if one were to be sounded, their deaths cannot be justified because they were innocent and didn’t deserve to die. The title itself epitomises sarcasm. An anthem is linked with celebration, national or religious, but for these “doomed youth”, they had the “monstrous…rattle” of guns to ‘celebrate’ their deaths. These two words: “anthem” and “doomed” are oxymorons because they are opposite and when put together, it produces an impacting effect that is dripping with sarcasm. Owen has created a forceful rhythm in the first stanza to express his intense emotion. This rapid rhythm is created by the alliterative words like “stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle”, the onomatopoeic words “monstrous anger” and the repeated sentence patterns “only the monstrous anger…only the stuttering rifles…no mockeries…no prayers nor bells, nor any voice”. The sarcastic tone and brisk rhythm are in keeping with Owen’s angry attack of war and the church. However, in the line “And bugles calling for them from sad shires”, anger gives way to pain. This line bridges the battlefield with home where the loss is deeply and universally felt. This loss is in two regions: the chaotic battlefield and home where all is quiet. It is suffered by Youth and even nature as mentioned earlier.
Owen uses sarcasm effectively in bitterly condensing the decimation of Youth, as in the title, and the utter failure of the church in preserving life and human dignity, as in references to the sounds of war replacing those at a church funeral. The prevalent feature of this poem is Owen’s skill in his use of the sounds of words. The onomatopoeic “stuttering…orisons”, and “monstrous…guns” evoke the deadly stutter of machine guns and thundering of cannons dominating the battlefield. The ‘m’ and ‘n’ sounds and long vowels convey the sense of heavy grief. The few references to “bells”, “orisons”, “prayers” and “choirs” are enough to create the image of the church and underline its helplessness in the face of guns and their thunder.
In the second stanza, the rhythm is slow and the tone is quiet conveying a sense of grief. The images are those of young peace-loving people and bereaved families mourning the deaths of other young people whom they genuinely loved. There is no reference to war in the form of imagery. He uses words like “candles”, “eyes”, “brows” and “flowers”, unlike the first stanza, which mixes war images with images of a church funeral. The last line moves with a very slow rhythm because of the long vowels and has a very quiet tone due to the alliteration of the ‘d’s and ‘n’s. This conveys the sense that nature itself is in deep mourning over a very painful loss. The rhyming “minds” and “blinds” gives the sense of rounding up the sonnet as well as emphasising complete grief over the loss of Youth. The contrast with the first stanza’s violence makes the reader see the different aspects of war – what happens on the battlefield, and what happens at home.
Owen’s poem, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is more appealing to me because it deals with two contrasting realities of war. His first stanza highlights the wastefulness of war (deaths of young soldiers) while the second stanza, the mourning for the dead. His sarcastic and later quiet tone reinforce the stark contrast between the different aspects of war. He uses powerful imagery and onomatopoeia to achieve the desired effects that make the poem more realistic. All this combined together produces effective thought provoking ideas and with each read, I gradually get an improved understanding and appreciation of the poem.