Page 210 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit

“Anthem For Doomed Youth”
by Wilfred Owen, page 90

Vocabulary
orisons – prayers
shires – counties
pallor – paleness
pall – a cover for a coffin

1. What does the simile, “who die as cattle” suggest about the death of the young soldiers?

2. What literary device is used to create images rather than simply offer descriptions of the
weapons of war in the first octet of the poem?

3. Why do you think the speaker employs religious terminology in the first stanza of the
poem? What does it say about his view of organized religion and war?

4. How does Owen link the two stanzas of his poem? Why does it break?

5. What do the soldiers receive in lieu of a funeral?

6. What is the term for the repetition of the ‘r’ sound in “rifles’ rapid rattle”?

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