An Analysis of “futility” by Wilfred Owen
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An Analysis of “Futility” by Wilfred Owen
The sun gives the breath of life until the cold brings over death. The “Futility”, by Wilfred Owen, communicates life and death of a soldier fighting in a useless battle. Wilfred Owen, the greatest of the First World War poets, wrote that his subject was war and the pity of war: “the Poetry is in the pity” (Spencer, 1992). The poems intricate words paint a picture for readers to show what the war was like through the eyes of a soldier. The “Futility” depicts a great deal of literature through form, structure, language and imagery.
The form of the poem is written in fourteen lines like a sonnet, but its broken down into seven line stanza. Owen uses the poem to discuss futility of conflict and life. The first stanza gives a description of the dying soldier and the second stanza discusses the earth and philosophy of life. The form is also considered to be an elegy, expressing thoughts about death. I am certain Owen was hurt, sad, and possibly confused losing so many of his friends on the battlefield. The blunt language is clear in the title Futility. The war has hardened the heart of the speaker. No emotion, death has become an everyday life for the speaker. The tone of the poem starts with hope and ends with hopelessness, a sense of frustration, and tone reflects the futility. In the beginning the sun was seen as being positive giving life. In the end the speaker no longer felt that way, soldiers died, so the sun did not make a difference.
Owen used language in developing images or imagery in his poem. For example, “Move him into the sun”. Being a soldier in the Army I can relate to what the speaker is saying. The leader is telling the subordinate to move the Soldier in the sun. The sun symbolizes life, so the sun has the ability to revive a soldier from sleep or slipping into death. Another is example is, “Gently its touch awoke him once”. Now I can visualize the bright, hot sun shining on his body. Soldier is trying to come through twitching his eyes and hands. “At home, whispering the fields on the unsown” (Clugston (2010) 11.6). Soldier is taking a journey back home in his mind, thinking about things not yet done as man, marriage, or having children. What is the speaker suggesting when he mentions, “Until this morning and this snow”? Snow being cold and death is symbolized as death. Later on in the poem the speaker said, “Was it for this the clay grew tall? Clay is a metaphor comparing the soldiers body to clay. The bodies are growing tall, stating more and more deaths are occurring. Oh what made fatuous sunbeams toil. The term fatuous is described as foolish. Oh how foolish of me to think that the sun can breathe life back into dying soldiers. Yet I see more and more soldiers dying right in front of my eyes. The rhythmic/ rhyme is an important factor