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  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
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About

Genius Annotation

This classic WWI poem concerns the death of soldiers and the notification their families receive when they die. As often in war, WWI soldiers typically fought without knowing the real political reasons behind the conflict, and suffered terrible experiences that civilians could not grasp. Many were poorly equipped and suffered severe combat trauma. They were the doomed youth of their day.

The word anthem has several meanings. The one most pertinent to this poem is an unusually rousing popular song that typifies or is identified with a particular subculture, movement, or point of view. However, an anthem can also be a choral song or religious chant. Owen’s “Anthem” implicitly contrasts with the patriotic songs sung by those caught up in the nationalist fervour of the war.

Owen chose the sonnet structure for this poem, no doubt because, traditionally, the form has been used for serious and solemn subjects — death, religious themes, deep love.

Structure
The poem is structured like a sonnet, that is four quatrains with a rhyming couplet to finish, making fourteen lines. The first two quatrains have a rhyming pattern ABAB, but in the third quatrain this changes, so the overall pattern is ABAB CDCD EFFE GG.

The metrical rhythm is iambic pentameter, that is five metrical feet per line, with each foot or ‘iamb’ comprising one unstressed and one stressed syllable. This, the traditional pattern for sonnets, has an elegant, dignified beat appropriate to the sad subject.

For more on sonnets, their structure, composition and history, see Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116.

Language and Imagery
The voice is that of a third person narrator, we can assume the poet. The tone is solemn and elegaic, that is praising a person or persons who have died.

There are two extended images woven through the poem, one of war and weapons, as in ‘stuttering rifles’ and ‘wailing shells’, and the other is the religious imagery — church services and bells — to represent the death of the young men and the girls at home, who mourn them.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

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