Transcript Futility - The Marvel Teacher

Futility
Wilfred Owen
May 1918 – First World War
Spine Road High School / Mrs Ismail - Le Chat / Grade 12
Owen fought in WW1 as an officer in the
Manchester Regiment - he was a man haunted
by the horrors of war and he loathed the
suffering that it caused. Doing his utmost to
serve his country honourably, his poetry acted
as a release from the terrors of warfare and to
help him cope with the horrific events he saw
each day.
In this poem Owen brings in personal pain as
he lost one of his friends to such a tragedy
Spine Road High School / Mrs Ismail - Le Chat / Grade 12
‘Futility’ – definition – pointlessness (noun)
Poem focuses on the meaning of existence and the
pointlessness of war and the inevitability of death in
war.
an anti war poem
War is nothing but a
meaningless butchery of
human beings. War snatches
away some promising lives of
these young men whom
have not yet lived.
The poem is a memorial to an Unknown Soldier. We have no idea who the
dead man is and we do not know whether he was even known to the
poet, except in his death. Like the Unknown Soldier he is nameless, but his
anonymous quality is shared with every other young man who was to be
squandered in war. Our most personal experiences of love and loss are
felt for him. Lack of individuality in a system that places the System over
the individual.
Spine Road High School / Mrs Ismail - Le Chat / Grade 12
STRUCTURE / FORM
• 14 lines –no resemblance to a sonnet. Perhaps deliberate as if Owen set
out to shake and bend the expected form as a reflection of his own
shaken ideas. Stanza 1 (lines 1-7) emanates a sense of grief and loss
whereas Stanza 2 (lines 8-14) expresses a sense of anger and realization
•
Half-rhyme: occurs in every second line rather than in couplets
(‘sun/once’ [only couplet], ‘once/France’, ‘unsown/ snow/know’
snow/know’
•
Eye-rhyme: (words look the same but does not sound the same)
“snow/now” All of these effects create an uneasy unity – there is rhyme
but it is not obvious and sometimes not even there at all. This reflects the
turmoil of emotions and ideas in which he finds himself.
Spine Road High School / Mrs Ismail - Le Chat / Grade 12
Line 1-2: narrator ordering a soldier to move the dying soldier into the sun – ‘Move’
• ‘him’ –soldier is unknown, representing all the soldiers who died pointlessly at war
• ‘sun’ – personified – “gently” “ touch awoke”
Line 3: ‘home’ suggesting comfort, where the soldier is from (memory)
• ‘whispering’ – Sun personified
• ‘unsown’ – 1. Fields that are partially sown
2. metaphor: a life not fully lived (soldiers were likely 18 years and older)
Lines 4-5:
• the warmth of the sun “Always it awoke him…” contrasts with the coldness of
the snow (contrasting life-death)
• the repetition of ‘this’ echoes the frustration of the narrator and soldiers.
Spine Road High School / Mrs Ismail - Le Chat / Grade 12
Lines 6-7:
• ‘rouse’ – wake
• ‘kind old sun’ – personified – describes the sun as an old wise person, and
suggestive that the sun will do the right thing and wake the soldier.
SOUND DEVICES: Lines 1-7
Assonance ‘o’ – sound ‘home/unsown/snow/know’ long vowel sound
emphasises the loss the narrator is feeling
Assonance ‘ow’- sound ‘rouse/now’ long vowel sound reinforces the futility
of their actions putting him in the sun
Spine Road High School / Mrs Ismail - Le Chat / Grade 12
Line 8:
• sun is life-giving, gives life to seeds (seeds grow into plants). ‘seeds’ –
‘wakes’ (Personification)
Line 9:
• ‘clays’ metaphor – humans made of clay (not literally but figuratively
humans are from the earth, part of nature)
• ‘cold star’ reference to earth (the sun gave life to earth)
• oxymoron: star is not cold, like ‘seeds’ it is given life to awaken.
• ‘star’ – personified
Line 10 - 11:
• ‘limbs’ – 2 meanings – 1. Branches of trees 2. Appendages (arms, legs,
etc) of the body. ‘full-nerved’ – reference to nerves in human body, and
life
Spine Road High School / Mrs Ismail - Le Chat / Grade 12
Rhetorical question:
He questions why the sun can give life to trees but not the body, to man?
Line 12:
• ‘Clay’ symbolic of man mentioned in Genesis 2.7
Narrator questioning the purpose of life and existence.
Rhetorical question: questions man’s existence and the purpose of man’s
existence. He also questions the purpose of the sun and why man is born to
die inevitably.
Lines 8-12 (‘sun’/’star’/ ‘warm’ – ‘hard’/’cold’/ ‘clay’) contrast between
life and death… also expresses the inevitability of death.
Spine Road High School / Mrs Ismail - Le Chat / Grade 12
Lines 13 - 14:
‘O’ – interjection emphasising his anger and disappointment.
‘fatuous’ – foolish, futile
‘toil’ – work hard
rhetorical question: why did the sun bother to awaken the earth, if all is
meant to die in it? A pointless and futile attempt to life.
Tone: Initially, tone is hopeful then tone
turns to desperation then to despair
and bitter questioning of the purpose
of life.
Spine Road High School / Mrs Ismail - Le Chat / Grade 12
Questions:
1.There is hope in the words ‘Gently’ (line2) and ‘Always’, as the
speaker describes the sun waking his comrade. Which words
describes doubt? (1)
2.Do you think that the speaker knows his comrade is dead at the
start of the poem? State your choice and support your answer by
referring to the title and lines 1-5. (6)
3.Outline the speaker’s argument in lines 8-11. (4)
4.The mention of France, which was the site of many WW1 battles,
is the only reference to war in the poem. Discuss how the poet
achieves his anti-war message without mentioning war itself. (4)
Spine Road High School / Mrs Ismail - Le Chat / Grade 12