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ANTHEM1
FOR DOOMED YOUTH
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What passing-bells2 for these who die as
cattle?
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Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
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Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
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Can patter out3 their hasty orisons.4
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No mockeries5 now for them; no prayers
nor bells;
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Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
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The shrill, demented6 choirs of wailing
shells;
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And bugles7 calling for them from sad shires.8
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What candles9 may be held to speed them
all?
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Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
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Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
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The pallor10 of girls' brows shall be their
pall;
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Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
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And each slow dusk11 a drawing-down of
blinds.12
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September - October, 1917
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Notes for students
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1 Anthem - perhaps best known in the expression "The National
Anthem;" also, an important religious song (often expressing joy); here,
perhaps, a solemn song of celebration
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2 passing-bells - a bell tolled after someone's death to announce the death
to the world
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3 patter out - rapidly speak
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4 orisons - prayers, here funeral prayers
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5 mockeries - ceremonies which are insults. Here Owen seems
to be suggesting that the Christian religion, with its loving God, can
have nothing to do with the deaths of so many thousands of men
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6 demented - raving mad
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7 bugles - a bugle is played at military funerals (sounding
the last post)
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8 shires - English counties and countryside from which
so many of the soldiers came
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9 candles - church candles, or the candles lit in the
room where a body lies in a coffin
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10 pallor - paleness
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11 dusk has a symbolic significance here
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12 drawing-down of blinds - normally a preparation for night, but also,
here, the tradition of drawing the blinds in a room where a dead person
lies, as a sign to the world and as a mark of respect. The coming of night
is like the drawing down of blinds.
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Notes copyright © David Roberts and Saxon Books 1998 and 1999. Free
use by students for personal use only.
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Copyright © 1999 Saxon Books.
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