Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it awoke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it awoke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds—
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved,—still warm,—too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all?
Introduction
Wilfred Owen’s poem Futility seems far more introspective and without the graphic horror of many of Owen’s other famous poems such as Dulce est Decorum est and Anthem for Doomed Youth.
This poem has a sense of quiet sorrow created in part through its elegiac tone that seems more meditative than the rage we find almost ‘spat’ out in many of his other famous poems.
Why is the poem called ‘Futility’? What is the poet edging us towards via this simple yet devastating title- is he referring to war, ‘the pity of war’ or his own feelings of hopelessness and impotence?
We do feel that the title of the poem directs us to read the poem in a certain tone and with a progressive sense of despair.
We may also feel that this poem is about someone Owen’s speaker/persona knew. It describes an ‘event’.
It takes place by the side of the newly dead man and reflects upon the transience of life and the existential dilemmas emanating from life’s tragic brevity.
For why are we born if only to die so prematurely and needlessly? Is war licensed murder, manufactured to suit powerful yet absent politicians and generals?
Analysis of first stanza.
The poem opens with a slightly vague gesture, it sounds(ironically) like weary imperative: ‘Move him into the sun-‘ The tone seems tender and caring. The gesture is respectful of the dead man’s character and personal preferences. The poet seems to have knowledge of the man and the word ‘home’, as in so many war poems including Owen’s, is painfully poignant.
‘Home’ is lost forever and these small gestures of care and respect are all that poet can do to mark the tragedy of the soldier’s passing.
The rural life is also evoked through the reference to ‘fields unsown.’ Villages and rural communities are often mentioned in Owen’s poetry almost as a form of lost Eden, tying in with the youth of the soldiers and their ruined, wasted innocence.
The use of assonance in the poem gives the poem a soulful sadness in the sounds created by the poet , suggesting that this is a personal lament.
Owen’s affection for pararhyme communicates the discordancy of death. ‘Things’ don’t quite work together, they sound out of synchronicity somehow, reminding the readers of the arbitrary horror of death. ‘snow’ ‘now’ and ‘know’.
The personified, ‘natural’ benevolence of the ‘kind old sun’ is in despairing, bleak contrast to the unnaturalness of the war. The sun sustains and nurtures life. The war destroys all that nature has so brilliantly and uniquely created.
Why Owen wonders did nature bother to create such natural wonders as ‘seeds’ and human beings only to destroy them in pursuit of power and territory?
Isn’t mankind the most FUTILE of all creations?
Hi ,
Do you have an example of an A* answer for the conflict poetry question because i am so struggling.
Kind regards
jenny
Lots of the conflict poems on this site and if you look at Margaret Newman’s book on the AQA Anthology Conflict, some examples of essay writing. Many thanks.
Thank you so much, I never thought you would reply. I am so happy now!