Learning Objective

Learning Objective To identify the structure of ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ and ‘The Send Off’ To continue comparing and contrasting both poems

What does the word structure mean?

Look at Anthem for Doomed Youth This poem takes the “form” of a sonnet – usually love poems or with a religious focus– Owens use of a sonnet structure is ironic as the theme is war/inevitable death and his message is the pointlessness of war Sonnets often have the structure of having eight lines (the octet) where the main point is set out, and then six lines which conclude the poem (the sestet). • Is this the case here? • Is there a rhyme scheme? • Is Iambic Pentameter used (de dum, de dum)?

Sounds Read the poem again: as you read I want to you to emphasise (not shout!) the loud sounds in it and whisper the church imagery. e.g.: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrousanger of the guns.”

The effect? • In the octet (first 8 lines) Owen has used very noisy and loud imagery to replicate the sound of war. • In the sestet (last 6 lines), Owen has done the opposite. The religious imagery creates a still effect which conveys to the reader the death of the soldiers killed in action.

Look at ‘The Send Off’ Owen uses quite an unusual structure in the poem: The are 8 stanzas which follow a pattern of a 3-line stanza, followed by a 2-line stanza etc. There are 20 lines in the poem. • Identify the rhyme scheme. • Identify the meter. He also uses a combination of long and short lines. 3.What effect do the short lines create?

Anti-war structure? • The Send Off uses Iambic Pentameter, although the lines are not of equal length. This gives the poem a kind of unnatural rhythm. The rhyme scheme runs through the poem, but it does not help the poem to flow. • Not only does Owen’s poem defy authority with its anti-war theme, the structure he uses seems to defy tradition – which adds to the defiant mood of the poem.

Cyclical structure • Owen opens ‘The Send Off’ with men walking “Down the close, darkening lanes”. • He ends with the survivors walking “up half-known roads” • This juxtaposes men at the start to how they are at the end and the damaging effects the war had on them. Key word: Juxtaposition: placement of two things (usually contrasting ideas) near each other for effect.

Past tense • Underline the past tense verbs (doing words). • What does the past tense suggest? • He also uses two auxiliary verbs (which suggest future) ‘Shall’ and ‘May’… what do these words suggest? These all add a sense of inevitable death.

Compare and contrast

Compare and ContrastTHEMES Find similarities Find differences Conspiracy Dark Survivor guilt Set at home Youth – boys/innocence • Inevitable Death • Sending soldiers to their death like cattle • Set on the front line • ‘Armchair Patriots’ • Pointlessness of war/ anti-war

Compare and ContrastDEVICES Find similarities Find differences Contradictory terms – oxymoron/juxtaposition Irony Rhetorical questions Metaphors Sound imagery • Church imagery • Personification • Alliteration • Similes • Repetition • Structure – Rhyme, meter, stanzas

Anthem for Doomed YouthPractice PEE Owen compares soldiers to cattle. He asks the rhetorical question: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” Using the word ‘cattle’ is a graphic way of showing how the men had no control over their lives. Like cattle, they were there to be slaughtered.

The Send OffPractice PEE From the opening line, Owen uses language and imagery to convey his negative feelings of the war. He uses the words: “down”, ‘close” and “darkening”. Using these words creates an image in the readers mind of the impending doom that the soldiers face as they embark on the train to face the horrors of war

Learning Objective