Friday, July 19, 2019

Consider changes Owen made in Anthem For Doomed Youth. How effective Es

Consider changes Owen made in Anthem For Doomed Youth. How effective do you find them in presenting the Pity of War? In this essay I intend to analysis how effective the redrafts of the poem 'Anthem For Doomed Youth' by comparing the first and final drafts. I will go about this task by comparing and contrasting the parts of the poem, which have been change to the ones, which appeared in the final draft. The first change that one is confronted with is the change of the title. Owen begins with the word 'dead', which is changed to 'doomed'. The reason for changing this is because it makes the readers first impressions very deep. The word 'doomed' hits closer to home than the word 'dead' as doomed creates image sin the readers mind that all the youth will die as opposed to 'dead' which simply accounts for the dead. The word doomed has a greater impact within the readers mind. The word doomed also has a sense of inevitability about it and those involved have no control over it. It hints to the reader that the youth of the soldiers has been taken away due to the horrific events that they will encounter whilst at war. As youth is meant to be a time of happiness. The overall impact if this change does do a lot for the poem to emphasise the 'Pity of War'. In the first line the soldiers are referred to in the final draft as 'cattle' from the passive verb of 'fast'. The word 'cattle' creates connotations within the readers mind of the slaughtering of the animals and creates a much more violent picture. It also spells out to the reader that the reason for cattle is so they can be slaughter and their existence serves no other meaning which could be linked to the purpose of the troops being in the battle field; t... ...ake an effort but it seems to make war be a petty thing and as soon as darkness strikes everyone puts down guns and waits until morning. Overall the majority of the changes are to make the lines have more impact but some are also to be in with the structure. The poem is in two stanzas, the first seems to create a picture of the entire events of a whole war. Due to the way it talks of battle and then mention remembrance at the end. Due to the language used and the usage of alliteration the stanza seems to have a sense of speed about it and overall creates a very compelling picture of war. The second stanza has a much more religious and emotional view about it. The pace is slowed down and there is much emphasis on the connotations and imagery, which the author crates. The poem is a very true reflection of the way in which life was wasted in World War One.

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