Analyse two poems 'Attack' and 'Anthem for doomed youth.'

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Lewis Mitchell                27th February, 2002

Analyse two poems ‘Attack’ and ‘Anthem for doomed youth.’

The two poems are both written by war poets from the First World War. Wilfred Owen fought in the Manchester regiment but was diagnosed with shell shock and was sent to Craiglockheart war hospital where he met Siegfried Sassoon who wrote Attack. Seigfried Sassoon then persuaded Wilfred Owen to write poems which is ironic as Wilfred Owen is more remembered for his poems than Sassoon. Owen then died a week before the war was over and his parents received the news the day the war ended. Wilfred Owen’s poem was a sonnet where as Seigfried Sassoon’ poem was not a complete sonnet.

        Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ automatically makes this sound like a sad poem by choosing the words ‘doomed youth’.         As an ‘Anthem’ is usually considered a song which is sung on an occasion to celebrate this is ironic as we know that this is a poem about death.         

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        The title is also an oxymoron as ‘Anthem’ is considered as a happy verb but at the same time the word ‘Doomed’ is used. As we can see Wilfred Owen has already set the mood for the poem.

        The first line in the poem starts with an angry question asking ‘what passing-bells for these who die as cattle.’ In the plague a bell was rung for every person who died until the bells didn’t stop ringing as too many people had died and therefore the bells were stopped. This line has similarities with this as a ‘passing bell’ was rung ...

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