Analysis of Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth"
Wilfred Owen?s ?Anthem for Doomed Youth? explores the theme of the pity of war. Throughout the sonnet, the narrator wonders what kind of service there could be for those that die in battle, only to come to the conclusion that there is no funeral for those that are herded into war. Owen takes the reader through the battle-front and then the home-front, contrasting the chaotic battlefield of the octave (ridden with cacophonous sounds and breaks in the meter) with the calmer, but more solemn sestet which shows the effect of the soldiers? deaths on their loved ones ? suggesting that this poem is much less an ?anthem? than anything else.