Analysis Of Fuutility By Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen states “Flying is the only active profession I would ever continue with enthusiasm after the War.” Wilfred Owen’s poetry conveys important ideas that impact upon the soldiers physical and mental states during the war. Owen was an anti-war poet who refuted the propagandist glorifying of the war. In exploring poems from Owen’s anthology which were posthumously published, it is evident that his views contrasted with propagandist notions of the time. This anthology was written during World War One, which also relates to Owen’s poetry, however his poetry was seen as an anti-war establishment. Some of the ideas that Owen has implemented during the course of his poetry are the horror of war, the futility of war and also traumatic experiences

The poem ‘Futility’ was written as a result of an incident where a soldier actually froze to death in February 1917. Therefore, in the poem Owen’s main focus is on a single casualty whose death is given a representative status. ‘Futility’ is also a poem which describes the wastefulness of war. Henceforth, that many young soldiers could have lived their life in a better manner where Owen perceives war as ‘wasteful’. Therefore, quotations are used which describe the war’s futility. “Are limbs, so dear achieved, are side” utilises a metaphor to show that war is wasteful in representing it with the ‘limbs’. Owen argues that our limbs take time to grow, our guardians waste all their time keeping us healthy, however with a result of a bullet by the foe can take it all away. Moreover, “was it for this clay he grew tall?” suggesting is this why we grow up, keep ourselves healthy and educate ourselves if it can be taken away within an instant, where Owen questions the meaning of life and religion through the utilisation of a rhetorical question. Furthermore, biblical allusion is used which confirm the story of our creation. Words like ‘clay’ emphasise biblical allusion as religious view says ‘we humans were made out of clay’. Therefore, the idea of the futility of war has also been explored in ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. Hence, purpose of the poem is to illustrate the

‘The Next War’ clearly illustrating the experience of the soldiers through Owen’s monologue. During the time ‘The Next War’ was written, public sentiment at home was beginning to turn against the senseless, seemingly and unending tide of slaughter. Moreover, this poem exposes the comparisons between the gruesome war and those that envisaged and dreamt of the future however, death itself becomes the foe rather than unfortunate soldiers which crumbled their dreams. ‘The Next War’ is a poem which makes the reader see the experiences the soldiers were going through which Wilfred Owen has focused on. Death is personified in the octave “Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland”. This line is an ironic way of thinking that the soldiers would be scared to die and lose their lives. However, the soldiers sit down with death and eat with death. This is because they have seen many of their soldiers die and they have inherited a nature of accepting death. Furthermore, as seen in the sestet “no soldier’s paid to kick against his power”, employs an extended metaphor. Hence, Owen is stating death is too powerful and cannot be avoided by anybody, so do not try to ‘kick’ against it and according to Owen it is not the worst thing or greatest evil there is. Similarly, ‘Insensibility’ reiterates the soldier’s experiences during the war. However, the soldiers in the poem are described in