Explore mankind’s relationship with death
In both “Unholy Sonnets 9” by the modern poet Mark Jarman and “Anthem for Doomed
Youth” by Wilfred Owen, the world is full of death, caused by us humans. As you would expect from
a sonnet written during his recovery from shell-shock in the First World War, Owen begins with the
slaughter and butchery of soldiers who ‘die as cattle’. This emphasises the fact that almost ten
million soldiers were obliterated during the war, by human hand alone, and that there were so many
dead that the only ‘passing-bells’ they had were the ‘monstrous anger of the guns’. Also, the
personification in this line conveys the irony that the soldiers are dead but the guns are alive, and
the full stop at the end, shows a definite answer to the starting question – ‘What passing-bells for
these who die as cattle?’. Further, the assonance and alliteration in ‘stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle’,
expresses the sound of gun fire on a battlefield and the human nature of the rifles, which were
created by the hideous advancement of killing efficiency at the time. This links to Hemingway’s idea
of ‘mechanised doom’, the notion that mechanical items (for example, guns) have invaded our
natural world and are causing its destruction. In addition, the unconventional structure of this
sonnet – the eleven syllables in line one (usually ten syllables per line), the flipped stress in line two
(DA dum instead of da DUM) and the break in the rhyme scheme in lines nine to twelve (EFFE
instead of EFEF) – suggests the struggle to convey the horror of the war, perhaps because the sound
of the words only are too ugly. Moreover, the war imagery, used six times across the whole poem;
‘die’, ‘monstrous anger’, ‘stuttering rifles’, ‘wailing shells’ and ‘bugles’, emphasises the destructive
nature of us humans and the need for war when there is always the possibility for peace.
All this war and destruction continues into “Unholy Sonnets 9”. In Jarman’s poem he begins
with the image of ‘the plane / break*ing+ up, and smoke and cold and darkness blow*ing+ / into the
cabin’, which immediately introduces the dread, terror and confusion that mankind experiences in
their lifetime. The comma in this line alludes to the falling apart of the plane by breaking up the
sentence. Further, in the third and fourth line, the word ‘it’ is repeated in the phrase, ‘praying as it
happens, / praying before it happens that it won’t’. This repetition suggests that ‘it’ – most probably
referring to death - looms large in our consciousness and outweighs our prayers. On line 6, Jarman
includes mention of ‘the first window on Kristallnacht’. This was the name for the night that the Jews
were attacked and killed by Nazi soldiers in World War II, which could be pushing for the Holocaust
(both of these events were a stain on world history). Then Jarman continues the Second World War
theme in line ten, when ‘people fell like bombs’. This perhaps suggests the link between men and
war, emphasising the fact that both wars were caused by us. This is strengthened by the phrase,
‘someone was praying / that it be unimaginable’, which shows the horror of human imagination,
that someone has imagined the worst, and perhaps, in the case of the wars, actually carried it out.
, Explore mankind’s relationship with death
In Tony Harrison’s “Long Distance”, “Marked with D” and “Book ends” and Wilfred Owen’s
“Anthem for Doomed Youth”, they address the idea that death separates people from their loved
ones. “Long Distance” was written after the death of Harrison’s mother and then his father after he
had been widowed for two years. This means that the sonnet conveys the devastating effects of
death on the people left behind, for his father first and then himself for both of his parents. Even the
title suggests a yearning for lost loved ones, who are far away. Harrison writes that his ‘Dad [still]
kept her slippers warming by the gas’, which alludes to the first stage of grief; denial (however, there
is an essence of affection too). The theme of denial continues throughout the sonnet, especially for
Harrison’s father but not as much for Harrison himself, because of his lack of faith in afterlife, as ‘life
ends with death, and that is all’. Compared to his father’s ‘still raw love’, he knows that when both
parents have passed away, they ‘haven’t both gone shopping’, which shows his acceptance of their
death. However, out of love and yearning, ‘in *his+ new leather phone book there’s *his+ name / and
the disconnected number [he] still call[s+’. Continuing in Harrison’s next poem, “Marked with D”, his
father ‘hungered for release from mortal speech’, which shows his desperate struggle against grief,
as his ‘life’s all shattered into smithereens’ (from “Book Ends”).
Similarly, in Owen’s sonnet, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, there is the aspect of death of
loved ones for the people left behind, while the soldiers go to war. In the last four lines, after the
volta, the argument has changed from the devastation and horror of war to ‘their eyes / shall shine
the holy glimmers of goodbyes’. The ‘shine’ of the eyes, suggests the tears of grief and the sorrowful
sound of ‘goodbyes’, emphasises the fact that these ‘girls’ are unlikely to see their brothers, fathers,
husbands or sons again. Further, in line twelve – ‘the pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall’ – the
‘pallor’, alludes to the pale, white flesh of soldier’s corpses and ‘pall’ refers to a white funeral shroud
that covers the coffin (note that the youthfulness of ‘girls’ accentuates the fact that at the time of
the First World War, people knew death at such a young age). In the last line, ‘each slow dusk’ could
link to the line in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” – ‘sad hours seem long’- which highlights the
grief of the mourners. Also, this perhaps suggests the dying light of a candle, an image of life to
death (In “Macbeth”, Lady Macbeth’s life is described as a candle; ‘out, out, brief candle!’). Owen
ends with the ‘drawing-down of blinds’, a reflection of the end – a curtain fall, the closing of the
eyes, and the covering of the body, leaving relatives with just their ‘goodbyes’.
In both “Unholy Sonnets 9” by the modern poet Mark Jarman and “Anthem for Doomed
Youth” by Wilfred Owen, the world is full of death, caused by us humans. As you would expect from
a sonnet written during his recovery from shell-shock in the First World War, Owen begins with the
slaughter and butchery of soldiers who ‘die as cattle’. This emphasises the fact that almost ten
million soldiers were obliterated during the war, by human hand alone, and that there were so many
dead that the only ‘passing-bells’ they had were the ‘monstrous anger of the guns’. Also, the
personification in this line conveys the irony that the soldiers are dead but the guns are alive, and
the full stop at the end, shows a definite answer to the starting question – ‘What passing-bells for
these who die as cattle?’. Further, the assonance and alliteration in ‘stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle’,
expresses the sound of gun fire on a battlefield and the human nature of the rifles, which were
created by the hideous advancement of killing efficiency at the time. This links to Hemingway’s idea
of ‘mechanised doom’, the notion that mechanical items (for example, guns) have invaded our
natural world and are causing its destruction. In addition, the unconventional structure of this
sonnet – the eleven syllables in line one (usually ten syllables per line), the flipped stress in line two
(DA dum instead of da DUM) and the break in the rhyme scheme in lines nine to twelve (EFFE
instead of EFEF) – suggests the struggle to convey the horror of the war, perhaps because the sound
of the words only are too ugly. Moreover, the war imagery, used six times across the whole poem;
‘die’, ‘monstrous anger’, ‘stuttering rifles’, ‘wailing shells’ and ‘bugles’, emphasises the destructive
nature of us humans and the need for war when there is always the possibility for peace.
All this war and destruction continues into “Unholy Sonnets 9”. In Jarman’s poem he begins
with the image of ‘the plane / break*ing+ up, and smoke and cold and darkness blow*ing+ / into the
cabin’, which immediately introduces the dread, terror and confusion that mankind experiences in
their lifetime. The comma in this line alludes to the falling apart of the plane by breaking up the
sentence. Further, in the third and fourth line, the word ‘it’ is repeated in the phrase, ‘praying as it
happens, / praying before it happens that it won’t’. This repetition suggests that ‘it’ – most probably
referring to death - looms large in our consciousness and outweighs our prayers. On line 6, Jarman
includes mention of ‘the first window on Kristallnacht’. This was the name for the night that the Jews
were attacked and killed by Nazi soldiers in World War II, which could be pushing for the Holocaust
(both of these events were a stain on world history). Then Jarman continues the Second World War
theme in line ten, when ‘people fell like bombs’. This perhaps suggests the link between men and
war, emphasising the fact that both wars were caused by us. This is strengthened by the phrase,
‘someone was praying / that it be unimaginable’, which shows the horror of human imagination,
that someone has imagined the worst, and perhaps, in the case of the wars, actually carried it out.
, Explore mankind’s relationship with death
In Tony Harrison’s “Long Distance”, “Marked with D” and “Book ends” and Wilfred Owen’s
“Anthem for Doomed Youth”, they address the idea that death separates people from their loved
ones. “Long Distance” was written after the death of Harrison’s mother and then his father after he
had been widowed for two years. This means that the sonnet conveys the devastating effects of
death on the people left behind, for his father first and then himself for both of his parents. Even the
title suggests a yearning for lost loved ones, who are far away. Harrison writes that his ‘Dad [still]
kept her slippers warming by the gas’, which alludes to the first stage of grief; denial (however, there
is an essence of affection too). The theme of denial continues throughout the sonnet, especially for
Harrison’s father but not as much for Harrison himself, because of his lack of faith in afterlife, as ‘life
ends with death, and that is all’. Compared to his father’s ‘still raw love’, he knows that when both
parents have passed away, they ‘haven’t both gone shopping’, which shows his acceptance of their
death. However, out of love and yearning, ‘in *his+ new leather phone book there’s *his+ name / and
the disconnected number [he] still call[s+’. Continuing in Harrison’s next poem, “Marked with D”, his
father ‘hungered for release from mortal speech’, which shows his desperate struggle against grief,
as his ‘life’s all shattered into smithereens’ (from “Book Ends”).
Similarly, in Owen’s sonnet, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, there is the aspect of death of
loved ones for the people left behind, while the soldiers go to war. In the last four lines, after the
volta, the argument has changed from the devastation and horror of war to ‘their eyes / shall shine
the holy glimmers of goodbyes’. The ‘shine’ of the eyes, suggests the tears of grief and the sorrowful
sound of ‘goodbyes’, emphasises the fact that these ‘girls’ are unlikely to see their brothers, fathers,
husbands or sons again. Further, in line twelve – ‘the pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall’ – the
‘pallor’, alludes to the pale, white flesh of soldier’s corpses and ‘pall’ refers to a white funeral shroud
that covers the coffin (note that the youthfulness of ‘girls’ accentuates the fact that at the time of
the First World War, people knew death at such a young age). In the last line, ‘each slow dusk’ could
link to the line in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” – ‘sad hours seem long’- which highlights the
grief of the mourners. Also, this perhaps suggests the dying light of a candle, an image of life to
death (In “Macbeth”, Lady Macbeth’s life is described as a candle; ‘out, out, brief candle!’). Owen
ends with the ‘drawing-down of blinds’, a reflection of the end – a curtain fall, the closing of the
eyes, and the covering of the body, leaving relatives with just their ‘goodbyes’.
