"Anthem for Doomed Youth" Wilfred Owen

"Anthem for Doomed Youth" Synopsis: The violent ugly circumstances of the battlefield provided the funeral and graveyard for the young war dead. The madness of this ("shrill demented choirs") and its gross evil ("the monstrous anger of the guns") are depicted. The contrasting sestet (last 6 lines) of the sonnet describes the sorrowing young ones' communities and friends. The poem contrasts the way human lives should be valued and commemorated with how war causes them to …

…spiritual commemoration of these lost young soldiers will be weeping eyes and the pale brows of their friends. There is significant use of religious imagery, intensifying his emotions by addressing the fact that the soldiers are not getting respected well enough, even to the extent where they do not have a proper funeral. The funerals are not normal, they are real and harsh and the soldiers are not glorified i.e. "no prayers, no bells"