Mental Cases and Anthem for Doomed Youth — a commentary on Wilfred Owen’s timeless masterpieces
How does Mental Cases and Anthem for Doomed Youth deviate from the conventions of romantic war poetry, and for what purpose?
War poetry has existed long before the age of modern warfare. The experience of war has been recorded throughout the centuries, from Homer’s Iliad to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade. In essence, war poetry is about war experiences and can be written by a soldier or a non-combatant. Wilfred Owen’s use of language and prosody in Mental Cases and Anthem for Doomed Youth deviates from the conventions of romantic war poetry to reveal the dark reality of war and challenge those who glorified war.
Historically, war poems written in English were crafted by poets who observed war from afar. This resulted in patriotic poems which celebrate war through its uplifting rhetoric. They often inspire songs, such as ‘Rule Britannia.’ Romantic war poetry reflected long-held beliefs of heroism. Its rhetoric dates back to ancient Greek and Roman ideas of honor and Medieval notions of courage. Horrified by the ruthlessness of war, World War 1 poets abandoned the rhetoric of heroism and turned to gruesome language. The war brought the Modernism movement whose war poetry is characterised by disillusion and broken meters.
The government and churches of England linked religion and enlistment to justify the need for war. Poetry was an influential medium in spreading war propaganda, and its religious motif of sacrifice allowed poets to connect with their readers. Owen deviates from the use of ornate language and criticizes the manipulation of religious language in promoting propaganda to direct his resentment at those who misrepresent the War. Mental Cases is a reference to the book of Revelation, but Owen reverses the biblical vision given to the apostle John. He likens the patients to saints who, instead of being committed to God day and night, were in perpetual pain. While the saints are shielded from sunlight, it ‘seems like a blood-smear’ to the mental cases. Pathetic fallacy turns the traditionally positive symbol to a reminder for death instead, presenting the idea of nature being against men. Owen’s allusion to religious concepts such as ‘purgatorial shadows’ serves as a metaphor for death. In contrast to the purgatory in Catholic doctrine, Owen’s metaphorical hell is inescapable. He voices his bitterness towards the end of Mental Cases.
With its cynical tone, ‘brother’ evokes an image of brothers in Christ which mocks poets who equate camaraderie in war to religious ideals. Contrary to romantic verses that glorify war, Owen reveals the grim truth of it through inclusive pronouns and active verbs. He refers to the antagonists as ‘us’, and by placing himself among them, the readers are compelled to spot the true enemy. The word ‘dealt’ suggests that those who initiated the war are responsible for the soldiers’ state. Owen subverts the motif of religion in war poetry to liken poets who integrate religion and propaganda to declarers of war themselves.
While rhythm in traditional war poetry mimics the cadence of soldiers marching, Owen’s use of trochaic pentameter creates a depressed tone. The extra syllables in line 16 breaks the rhythm to reflect chaos and present the disparity between the conventional truisms and the reality of war. Romantic war poetry often ignored the psychological effects of war. In a world that still identified warfare with glory, Mental Cases reveals lasting impacts of trauma. He replaced the romanticized views of war with blunt realism through phrases such as ‘drooping tongues’ and ‘baring teeth’. The animalistic trait implies the soldier’s loss of control over their own actions. Furthermore, ‘slob their relish’ suggests that life’s pleasures have lost meaning. The simile ‘ Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh,’ reflects the perpetual nature of their pain. Often symbolic for hope, ‘dawn’ is ironic as it describes the permanent mental wounds instead. The vivid detail Owen provides about shell-shock, coupled with religious references and an irregular meter, questions the presence of God in the midst of anguish; furthermore, it challenges the message of war as salvation that was displayed by many early war poems.
Traditional war poetry is often a romanticised account of a soldier’s life or a call to action, examples of this include Who’s for the Game and The Soldier. Unlike its jingoistic counterparts, Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth is an anti-war poem which seeks to expose the inhumanity of war. He subverts the traditional form of a Petrarchan Sonnet, its structure used to evoke sorrow instead of love. The octet reveals the chaos on the simile creates an image of a slaughterhouse to dehumanize the supposedly noble soldiers. He proves that there is nothing beautiful about war as the soldiers ‘die as cattle.’ The closed sound in ‘cattle’ ends the line harshly and highlights the soldiers’ frequent deaths. The lack of respect for soldiers is conveyed through ‘rifles’ rapid rattle’, whose alliterative ‘r’ works as an onomatopoeia and creates a staccato effect, mimicking the sound of guns drowning out the prayers for fallen soldiers. Traditional war poetry tends to portray a nostalgic image of a rustic England left behind by soldiers, but Owen defies this through the phrase ‘sad shires.’ Its negative connotation suggests that the soldiers’ enlistment caused grief on their families, and Owen explores this idea in the sestet. ‘Glimmers of goodbyes’ suggest that tears will replace the candles, an ancient Christian symbol of hope in the afterlife. The guttural ‘g’ mimics their families’ broken voices. Contrary to traditional, the soldier’s deaths are portrayed as heartbreaking instead of glorious through Owen’s use of sound devices. Being a metaphor for death, ‘drawing-down of blinds’ reflect how a soldier’s life is cut short through its concluding ‘nd’ sound. Owen combines the language of the church and trenches to reveal the poignant deaths of soldiers.
Wilfred Owen remains one of the most celebrated war poets due to his rejection of romanticism. Through Mental Cases and Anthem for Doomed Youth, he brings to light the harsh reality of war and acts as a voice for soldiers.
