 When the first world war broke out in the year 1914, war was glorified

and the soldiers were praised as war heroes. However, the brutalities of
war intensified which led to the loss of close to 17 million lives. As a
result, there was rise in disillusionment among the civilians and the
soldiers alike which led to a sense of meaninglessness among the
people.
 Most importantly, the First World war challenged the long-held beliefs
and conventions of war which also influenced the literature produced
during that period.
 There was a radical shift in the themes of the earlier poems which
glorified war to anti-war poetry.
 Wilfred Owen is an important figure in anti-war poetry. He was born in
the year 1893, in England.
 Wilfred Owen joined the army in the year 1915, which is a year before
men in Britain were forced to enlist in the army. In fact, he even came
back to England from France, where he was teaching English to enlist
in the army.
 However, Owen suffered from shell-shock or what we now call as post-
traumatic stress disorder and was sent to Craiglockhart war hospital in
London, to get treated.
 It was in this war hospital; he met another war poet Siegfried Sassoon.
This meeting was a turning point in Owen’s career and Sassoon had a
great influence in Owen’s writing. Owen’s first-hand experiences of the
war led him to write anti-war poems. Owen was mentored by Sassoon
to a great extent, and he produced popular anti-war poems such as
“Dulce et Decurm Est”, “Arms and the Boy”, “Strange Meetings”,
“Disability”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” etc. . Most of his poems
were published posthumously.
 Owen is widely regarded as one of Britain's greatest war poets. He
wrote about the physical and psychological trauma of war, from his own
experiences in the warfront.

The title of the poem is “Anthem for Doomed Youth”

 The word ‘Anthem’ generally means a song of celebration or song of praise.
Paradoxically, Owen places such a word alongside doomed youth, thereby
creating a sense of despair. The title denotes the soldiers who die young in the
war. Interestingly, the title suggests his own fate because Owen was killed in
war in the year 1918, just a week before the war end, when he was only 25
years old, who died as a doomed youth.

In terms of the structure of the poem, it is 8+6 line poem, which makes it a 14
line sonnet.
A sonnet is traditionally a love poem. What Owen does here through the
structure of the poem is, he expresses his love for the fellow soldiers who are
doomed to die young in the war.

The whole poem is about the soldiers who died in World War I, and it
compares the traditional funeral ceremonies of the civilian world to the
inhumane death of the soldiers on the battlefield.

Now, lets discuss the poem in detail.

Read the poem.

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

      — Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Passing-bells are church bells that are rung to announce the death or funeral of
a person to the villagers.
The poem begins with the rhetorical question: What passing bells for these
who died as cattle?
Owen questions the readers what kind of bells will be rung for the soldiers who
die in the warfront.
Interestingly, Owen compares the death of the soldiers to that of the cattles by
using the simile ‘as’.
By this comparison, Owen makes it clear that the soldiers have a
dehumanizing death in the warfront with their bodies thrown into pieces in the
explosion. They are no different from cattles that are butchered.

Owen uses the word ‘these’ instead of those who die, to bring the readers
closer to the soldiers, thereby producing a strong sense of grief and despair.
 In the second line of the poem, Owen gives the answer to his question. He says
unlike the traditional church bells, only the sounds of the guns become their
passing-bells.

Owen uses personification to by giving the guns a human emotion. The word
‘anger’ itself is violent enough, yet he uses the word ‘monstrous anger’, to
denote the violent and destructive nature of guns in the warfront.

  Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

Traditionally, a prayer is said for the dead during the funeral. Orison means a
prayer. Owen says that, on the contrary, the only quick prayer that is said for
the soldiers who die in the warfront is the rapid rifle sound.

Owen uses the literary device of alliteration: rifles, rapid, rattle that begins
with same consonant sound to strengthen the imagery of the rifle sound to the
readers.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; 

Owen says in these lines that the traditional forms of remembering the dead is
only a mockery for the soldiers because the reality in the trenches are he
opposite. There is no bell, no prayer to pay the last respect for the dead
soldiers.

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

Traditionally, in a Christian funeral a choir sings songs mourning the dead, but
in the warfront only the wailing sound of shells, when they are dropped is the
only kind of choir they could hear.
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
Bugle is a brass instrument. In military tradition, the Last Post is the bugle call
that indicates that the soldier has died.
Now, there is bugle sound from the sad shires, Shires are the villages back in
England. And from those small villages, someone will play the bugle to for the
dead soldier.
 Now, in the second stanza, Owen shifts his attention to the mourning family of
the dead soldiers.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

 Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

In traditional funerals, candles are lit to by the mourners to honour them and
tell them ‘godspeed’
to the departing soul. But, there is no candles in the hands of the boys, be it the
sons or brothers of the dead soldiers, but only the shimmering tears in their
eyes saying their final goodbye to their loved ones act as candles.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

A white cloth is traditionally placed over the coffin to cover the dead. On the
contrary, The pale colour of the girls’, ie.) the daughters and wives of the dead
soldiers whose forehead has turned pale from tears and grief for the dead
soldiers will be the only pale cloth they will be covered in.
That will be their coffin cloth, because again, out on the battlefield, there's not
going
The last two lines:
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
So, unlike the traditional funeral where there are flowers, there is nothing in
the battlefield for the dead soldiers but only the tender minds of the family that
mourn for them.

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Normally, in a civilian death the curtains or drawn to denote a death in the

family and honour them.
But there are no curtains in the battlefield and it the dusk, the setting of the sun
will be the natural curtain that will honour the dead denoting that the soldier
has gone to eternal rest.