Consider changes Owen made in Anthem For Doomed Youth. How effective

Consider changes Owen made in Anthem For Doomed Youth. How effective

do you find them in presenting the Pity of War?

In this essay I intend to analysis how effective the redrafts of the

poem 'Anthem For Doomed Youth' by comparing the first and final

drafts. I will go about this task by comparing and contrasting the

parts of the poem, which have been change to the ones, which appeared

in the final draft.

The first change that one is confronted with is the change of the

title. Owen begins with the word 'dead', which is changed to 'doomed'.

The reason for changing this is because it makes the readers first

impressions very deep. The word 'doomed' hits closer to home than the

word 'dead' as doomed creates image sin the readers mind that all the

youth will die as opposed to 'dead' which simply accounts for the

dead. The word doomed has a greater impact within the readers mind.

The word doomed also has a sense of inevitability about it and those

involved have no control over it. It hints to the reader that the

youth of the soldiers has been taken away due to the horrific events

that they will encounter whilst at war. As youth is meant to be a time

of happiness. The overall impact if this change does do a lot for the

poem to emphasise the 'Pity of War'.

In the first line the soldiers are referred to in the final draft as

'cattle' from the passive verb of 'fast'. The word 'cattle' creates

connotations within the readers mind of the slaughtering of the

animals and creates a much more violent picture. It also spells out to

the reader that the reason for cattle is so they can be slaughter and

their existence serves no other meaning which could be linked to the

purpose of the troops being in the battle field; t...

... middle of paper ...

...ake an effort but it

seems to make war be a petty thing and as soon as darkness strikes

everyone puts down guns and waits until morning.

Overall the majority of the changes are to make the lines have more

impact but some are also to be in with the structure. The poem is in

two stanzas, the first seems to create a picture of the entire events

of a whole war. Due to the way it talks of battle and then mention

remembrance at the end. Due to the language used and the usage of

alliteration the stanza seems to have a sense of speed about it and

overall creates a very compelling picture of war. The second stanza

has a much more religious and emotional view about it. The pace is

slowed down and there is much emphasis on the connotations and

imagery, which the author crates. The poem is a very true reflection

of the way in which life was wasted in World War One.