Neil+W

**Anthem for Doomed Youth**
toc [|Wilfred Owen Voicethread]
 * [[image:http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JY-FjysBfgQ/S7oZhJxw-fI/AAAAAAAAAhw/eAGWccjUcGA/s1600/wilfred_owen.jpg width="160" height="204" align="center"]] ||
 * Wilfred Owen wrote "Anthem for Doomed Youth" in 1917. ||

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Script
This poem, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen, bluntly states that youth in this poem are “doomed”. These youth are compared to cattle, as they are herded into death to be attacked by these “monstrous” guns. An “anthem” is a type of song sung to honor something. The youth have no “passing-bells” to honor them, with only the sound of the “stuttering rifles” to signify their deaths. It can be inferred that the war has gone on long enough that no one has any more energy to spare in mourning. After all, the only sounds heard on the battlefield are the screeching of artillery shells.

It is only in the “shires,” their hometowns where there are people mourning with bugles. There seems to be so many deaths that there are no more candles and even no more “palls,” the cloth that is used to cover a coffin. Nothing is held in the “hands of boys,” because it is likely that the ones who still remain are amputees. The last sentence is particularly symbolic. A “drawing-down of blinds” can mean the loss of life because closing the blinds removes all light. Typically, the connotation of darkness relates to death as it is black, the color of mourning. The blinds are drawn down, but it is also dusk, and soon to be night. The speaker implies that death is approaching for everyone. Some people have just had their blinds drawn down earlier than others. After all, the youth in this poem are “doomed.”

Click to download the TPCASTT for this poem.