Comparing An Irish Airman Foresees His Death by WB Yeats and Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen

Comparing An Irish Airman Foresees His Death by WB Yeats and Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen

WB Yeats was an extremely successful Irish poet who was

extraordinarily patriotic and proud to be Irish. He played his part in

the Irish Renaissance at the beginning of the 1900s. Although he was a

proud Irishman he chose to show his patriotism through his poetry

instead of political or military action. Through his poems he spoke of

national heroes’ bravery and well doings instead of their political

status or where they stood in society. He praised people who did

things for a cause or beliefs; for example he described the Easter

Rising as a “terrible beauty”. WB Yeats scarcely wrote about war but

when he did he criticized the soldiers that did not believe they were

fighting for a cause, had any purpose, knowing they will most likely

lose their life or just go because they think they have nothing to

lose. This opinion of Yeats’ is what this poem is based on and it is

Major Robert Gregory who demonstrated the actions he criticizes.

Gregory had the “I have nothing to lose” attitude towards it decided

he would do something he enjoyed while he died. The poem states that

he went to war for “a lonely impulse of delight” and he did not care

about any “cheering crowds” or “duty”. He did not see any meaning or

point in the past, future or present and saw it all as a “waste of

breath”.

Wilfred Owen however is against war for a different reason: the

needless deaths that are inevitably going to take place. He was a

soldier in the Manchester regiment in World War 1 and had experienced

the horrors of trenches first hand. After going through t...

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...their own choice and the picture painted in

your head after reading the first two lines is not a pretty one (being

shot down in the air an crash landing to your death).

Anthem for Doomed Youth’s imagery is so very different because it is

mainly based on Wilfred Owen’s trench experiences so you get samples

of that: “rifles’ rapid rattle”. BUT there is another side to the

imagery used in Owen’s poem; religious imagery from funerals: “candles

may be held”, “from prayers or bells”. There is quite a lot of them

used basically because the theme of the poem is to recognise the

bitter, unknown deaths of soldiers and to compare them with regular

deaths along with funerals and the mourning of neighbors or relatives.

After all, the only positive thing the soldiers get is “boys eyes,

shining with the holy glimmers of good-byes”.