Nations have “national anthems” which are songs which represent the whole nation the British have “God Save The Queen” because the Queen is our head of state.

Why is the poem called an “anthem”? An anthem is a song which represents a group of people, often a country or nation. Why will blinds be drawn down in the dusk? Why will the dusk be “slow”? Why will the flowers commemorating the soldiers with be the “tenderness of patient minds”? Why will the “pallor girls’ brows be their pall”? What is a pall? Why will the boy say goodbye to the “doomed youth” with their eyes and not with their hands? Why might candles “speed” all the dead soldiers? What are “shires” and why are they “sad”? Why are “bugles” sounding in these shires? What “choirs” are there? Why are they “shrill” and “demented”? What do these adjectives mean? Who or what is “mourning” the soldiers in this poem? Why are very few people “mourning” the dead soldiers? What “mockeries” could there be for the soldiers? Why are there no “mockeries”, no “prayers” or “bells”? What are “hasty orisons”? Who is “pattering” out “hasty orisons” and why? Why do the rifles “stutter”? What is their speed? Why is the anger of the guns “monstrous”? What is heard as a replacement for “passing bells”? What are “passing bells”? Why do we not hear traditional “passing bells” for those who “die as cattle”? What kind of flowers will be at the soldiers’ funeral?Ĭ) The flowers will be replaced by the “tenderness of patient minds”ĭ) Gas attacks in World War 1 and the horror of warĮ) Soldiers sending letters home and lying about what has happened to themį) The fact they will be no proper funerals for the dead young soldiersĭ) Only what the rifles stutter and rattle outį) There will be no candles, only the teary eyes of boysį) The flowers will be replaced by the “tenderness of patient minds” What kind of candles will be lit to help the soldiers to heaven?Ĭ) There will be no candles, only the teary eyes of boys What kind of hurried prayers will be said by the soldiers?Ī) Only what the rifles stutter and rattle out What will replace the “passing bells” to commemorate the dead soldiers? Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,Īnd each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.Ī video performance of the poem can be found here: Ī) Gas attacks in World War 1 and the horror of warī) Soldiers sending letters home and lying about what has happened to themĬ) The fact they will be no proper funerals for the dead young soldiers The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes What candles may be held to speed them all? The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells Īnd bugles calling for them from sad shires. Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, – No mockeries now for them no prayers nor bells, What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Wilfred owen's anthem for doomed youth