Anthem for Doomed YouthEssay Preview: Anthem for Doomed YouthReport this essay‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is an elegiac poem, which, while overflowing with a lamenting sadness, Owen also uses to convey absolute derision for the brutality of war and the immorality that defines it. Through its paradoxical nature, he expresses the impact of the war by shattering the romanticised and distorted misconceptions with the juxtaposition of his violent images that give an insight into the true experience. These striking sentiments are further emphasised by Owen’s intriguing exploration of the glorification of the deaths in the trenches, hinting at the futility of faith and the lack of religious justification, leaving the reader with a resounding conclusion of the perverse nature of war.
‚Owen does not go into the history of religion, but he goes through the struggles of Christians in different periods, from the Middle East to the Middle East. He describes the war as “the most important struggle of Christianity that the world has ever seen… with a few exceptions”. But for Owen, the struggle is the most powerful, and he points out the devastating consequences of war. He compares violence to war for the “prevention of all evil”. As a result of war in a secular context, Western leaders have used war as an evil tool (including in Syria) under a secular framework (like a ‘pro-Western’ narrative), but in the Islamic world war was seen as a source of peace and order while war has been a source of ‘freedom’ for its oppressors. In this he sees the triumph of democracy by the Syrian people as a victory for Islamism in the Arab nations. He argues that, the only way to protect both democracy and the freedom of faith is to make Islamic terrorism, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah a source of war.
The question that remains for Owen is whether the war was justified or not by religion. What is the ‘faith in the war’ of Islam in this context of ‘political war’ and ‘international jihad’? Is peace for all Muslims a genuine and peaceful enterprise, while war for this group is a social aggression?
The answer to that has always been war. It is the way in which Western civilisation has been perpetuating and justifying the world and society over the last three millennia by means of war, the way that the only option to any meaningful end is to continue the system of exploitation and oppression in favour of more savage powers. The ‘war on terror’ in this context has been a political tool. It’s why it’s often referred to as a war on terror. It’s why we don’t really see it as a religious war in the traditional sense and that the only way forward is to make Islam as a moral law and freedom.
The war on terrorism is not new, since it was carried out by Islamic State during the second Gulf War (ISIS’s predecessor ISIL and its supporters have been targeting Christians in Iraq and Syria). For instance, the second Gulf War also took place under a secular form. It is also why the war is often thought of as a religious war in this context. We haven’t seen much about it from the West since it was first brought up, and most Muslims seem to be comfortable in claiming there is no religion in their hearts, no need for religion for them, nothing to do with their religion, and simply a lot of what makes an extremist cause of violence. Of course, we now know that jihadists have no religious justification and that they carry out attacks based on their religion rather than on their motives. However, Owen believes that religion should at least be the main reason for wars.
‚From his book Anti-Muslimophobia: Religion in Syria in the Third World (Cambridge University Press, 2017, p.18) Owen cites research from several prominent religious studies
Immediately there is a sense of irony that is created in the poem, rooted in the title: Anthem for Doomed Youth. Typically, an anthem is a patriotic song that symbolises the power in unity (also having religious connotations) therefore, in the presence of the following phrase, doomed youth, a sense of incongruity arises – the irony being that it seems a paradoxical celebration of such hopelessness, conveying the depraved nature of war. Additionally, Owens specification of the youth is highly emotive, revealing an unjustness that such corrupt brutality and inevitable doom is thrust onto such innocent and inexperienced people. This depicts the futility of those who are victims of war, evoking pathos for the soldiers and expressing the true heinousness of the experience.
Furthermore, the poem begins with the shocking rhetorical question: What passing bells for these who die as cattle? Already, this phrase introduces religious imagery, however this is quickly is compounded by the violent simile which serves to dehumanise the soldiers as cattle, emphasising the merciless nature of the deaths as well the sheer amount. With his clever use of diction in referring to the soldiers as these rather than those, he creates more of an intimacy and closeness between them and the reader, only to shatter this with the vicious depiction of their slaughter, conveying a sense of loss. Interestingly, whilst this line holds sorrow, there is a somewhat bitter subtext linking back to the abolition of the religious imagery of the passing bells with the juxtaposition of the reality of war. This could be interpreted as Owen hinting at the sinfulness of war, the lack of spirituality and mercy, perhaps in a rather accusatory way. This is supported by aggressive, sensory imagery in the next two lines: Only the monstrous anger of the guns/ Only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle. These create a very vivid image of the war with the plosive phrase stuttering rifles rapid rattle, which mimics the sound of the gun and therefore brings the atmosphere of the war unsettlingly close to the reader. It is yet another line with offers conflicting ideas of the war, what with the disjointed syllables reflecting the instability and unpredictability of war while the continuance of the alliteration creates an unbearable sense of monotony. As well as this, by using anaphora of the word only at the beginning of these lines, it offers an answer to the previous rhetorical question: there is a blatant lack of recognition or appreciation of those who died, there is just the inevitable abundance of more violence and death. The personification of the weapons, giving them very human states such as anger here is highly significant also, considering the previous dehumanisation of the soldiers – it gives a certain unjust supremacy to the guns, and the concept of violence – emphasising further the tragic futility of their battle.
Owen further delves into the idea of the ungodliness of war in the line, No mockeries now; no prayers nor bells. The referral to these spiritual things as mockeries strips them of their holy, solemn façade – here Owen may be trying to reveal these things as ritual pleasantries – justifications of the deaths which he has set up as impossible to justify due to their horrific, meaningless slaughter. In this way, the poem is very much a parody