Anthem for doomed youth and Channel Firing - Essay Example

Poetry Analysis War is a grim and terrible event that is always soaked with blood and tears of ordinarypeople. This is a struggle, a severe struggle between people, nations and countries. War takes away human lives, brings destruction and devastation washing the land with blood and tears. Independent of its reasons and aims, war is dreadful and destructive. As politics and businessmen yearn to get more and defend their mercantile interests, grassroots are convinced of the necessity of the warfare and sent to be slaughtered.

Understanding of this sad fact is crucial for making sense of war poetry. As outer circumstances have great impact on people’s minds and inspire them, numerous works of art and literature of the first half of the 20th century are connected with war, namely with World Wars I and II. Thus, two poems – Channel firing by Thomas Hardy and Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen have an aura of sorrow and mourning. Channel firing was written in 1914 during the period preceding the outrage of the World War II.

The subject matter of the poem is far from trivial: the author speaks with voices of dead men who complain about loud scary noise. The dead men state that the noise made them think it was the Judgment day and God was blowing the trumpet. The explanation for such suppositions comes out of the historical background of the poem. The last months before the war were filled with turmoil and unrest. Great Britain’s military forces began their preparation for the warfare with firing practice for battleships in the English Channel.

This terrible thunder was carried inland and especially loudly heard in coastal settlements (Welford). Not all the people were aware of the upcoming grave events; some wondered what that terrible noise was. Though the author keeps the tone of his poem rather lax and light-hearted – the corpses continue with their conversation which later involves the God who answers their questions telling that the earth remains the same as on the day they passed away. The poem is not saturated with explicit sorrow and horror: its mood seems unearthly (the diseased, the God and questions of Judgment Day evoke religious allusions (StudyMode) and unrelated, but the reader feels implicit foreboding of fearful events.

Reading it, we feel that tough the war hasn’t begun yet; it already scares us and suggests dismay.The second poem is written by the poet who himself took part in the warfare. Wilfred was a young officer who entered the war with noble intentions and great enthusiasm; he was filled with patriotic feelings and devotion to the high purpose (Shmoop Editorial Team). But in the long run, he came to the conclusion that the war in reality was far from what he thought it to be. In other words, he was disappointed and lost faith.

The poem’s subject matter is painful regrets for all those soldiers that have perished in this meaningless and devastating war. Owen writes that no bells will ever toll for these young men who died in the battlefield fighting for the illusive purpose. To my thinking, this poem is far more gloomy and sorrowful. The author doesn’t dress sorrow in light-hearted conversation as Hardy does. The title contains the word “anthem” which turns out to be a bitter parody for the solemn national anthem.

Contrasting these two poems, one can distinguish both common and diverse features in their theme and tone. Whereas both of them are dedicated to the horrors of war, they sound different. Channel firing sounds more unearthly and distract though implying the foreboding of the upcoming tragedy for many nations. In contrast to the prewar Channel Firing, Anthem for Doomed Youth is filled with mourning and disappointment: the author implies the tragedy of human lives lost for no reason and forgotten.

Works Cited:Shmoop Editorial Team. Anthem for Doomed Youth, from: http://www.shmoop.com/anthem-for-doomed-youth/StudyMode. Channel Firing Poem Analysis, from: http://www.studymode.com/essays/Channel-Firing-Poem-Analysis-877871.htmlWelford, John. Poetry Analysis Channel Firing by Thomas Hardy, from: http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/poetry-analysis-channel-firing-by-thomas-hardy-2-7818/