Futility By Wilfred Owen

Summary of poem: This poem was written at Ripon in May 1918. It tries to capture the essence of feelings of futility; of senselessness and waste. Owen wants the reader to understand the utter pointlessness of life beginning if it is to end on the battlefield. He is not concerned with the politics of war or with taking sides. He is concerned with the “pity of war”; the tragedy that war is.

Summary cont. The poem begins with hope, but ends with despair. At the beginning of the poem, the sun is a source of all life, vitality and strength. The poem ends, however, with the sun being viewed as meaningless and ineffectual – “fatuous”. The poem gradually builds up tension between opposites and finally explodes in a feeling of complete frustration at the pointlessness of life. The responder begins to experience the tragic nature of war in the frustration of never realising one’s potential – “fields unsown”, the grief of those left behind – “always woke him”, the bitterness when death is seen as the end – “was it for this the clay grew tall” and the strong contradiction between the power and vitality of nature – “woke, once, the clays of a cold star” and the finality of death.

Stanza One: Meaning One soldier tells another to move the man’s body into the warmth of the sun. He gives as his first reason for this instruction, the fact that the dead soldier used to be a young farmer back in his “home” country – a youth who would wake at sunrise each day in the past, because the warmth would remind him that he had to get out into his fields and sow his crops. Owen’s subject is a rural lad who had once had wheat fields to sow. He is in tune with nature and woke with the sun, even in the unnatural environment of war. But now the sun’s warmth is powerless to rouse him and Owen contrasts that rejuvenating element with the wintry world of death. The persona of the poem thinks hopefully, that the sun is like a kind old God or powerful old man, who will know what to do to make his friend wake up.

Stanza One - Techniques: Move him into the sun – Gently its touch awoke him once, At home, whispering of fields unsown. Instructional language heightened by the use of present tense imperatives Nameless young man who dies in this poem is representative of all those who die needlessly in war. Symbol of life; creation – depicted in positive terms as a gentle Tone: assertive and reasoning Personification of the sun / adverb “gently”= warmth /gentle giver of life and heat – a possible saviour and worker of miracles for this man Nostalgic reference to “home” with connotations of peace, safety and release This suggests the potential of things yet to be achieved The assonance of the “o” creates a long drawn out sound, reflecting the long distance the man is away from his home.

Stanza One cont. Always it woke him, even in France Until this morning and this snow The kind old sun will know Placement of “Always” emphasises the contrast with “Until” – further highlighted by repetition of “this” The word “Always” shows their desperation and refusal to accept that he is dead. Bitter acknowledgement of his death Disbelief that even here in this hostile place, the sun still had the power to arouse up until now. Personification of sun as gentle and father figure Pun on “Son” of God – loving, powerful

Stanza Two: Meaning Any hope that was aroused in the first stanza is soon dismissed as the second stanza opens with continued focus on the sun and its power: It makes seeds start growing as they feel the earth around them warming up It was powerful enough to help to start life on earth and get evolution going The narrator then begins to wonder about how much power to revive the young man the sun actually has. He asks if legs and arms which take so long and strong are too hard for the sun to move. Next he asks if the young man’s sides, which are full of nerve-endings and which still feel warm (as the soldier has only recently died) are also too hard for the sun to affect. His third question is to ask why men were made by God at all, if they were just going to die uselessly like this. His final question shows he has totally lost his faith in the power of the physical sun; in the power of the “Son” of God, the Christian creator of the world. He accuses the sunbeams of being “fatuous” – self-satisfied for no good reason and bitterly demands to know why earth wasn’t left as a dead “star” by creation – because if a strong young man can die like this – not even in an actual fight – everything about life seems totally pointless.

Stanza Two: Techniques Think how it wakes the seeds, - Woke, once, the clays of a cold star. Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides, Full-nerved, - still warm, - too hard to stir? Extended metaphor of sun as father and developer / harbinger of life itself Allusion t scientific origins of life on earth Refusal to believe the truth that limbs still warm cannot be roused Rhetorical questions becoming more, and more demanding and ironic or bitter in tone as they increase in number. Punctuation of dashes and commas separating out each phrase suggests looking at and/or touching different parts of the dead soldier’s body, with increasing desperation.

Stanza Two cont. Was it for this the clay grew tall? -O what made fatuous sunbeams toil? To break earth’s sleep at all? Rhetorical questions pose the eternal agony of “why”? Disgust and bitterness are evident in the spat out phrase “for this”. Use of “O” is onomatopoeic of crying out in pain – reinforces the idea that he is rebelling against his personal loss and at the futility of life during war. Owen questions the purpose of life itself and asks readers to ponder if it is all for nothing