Futility, Wilfred Owen (1918)
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19391
Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
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?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?
Response #9:
Wilfred Owen emphasizes the meaning of the title, “Futility,” throughout his poem, which portrays the last remaining hope that a dying soldier will awake. Merriam-Webster defines “futility” as “the state or quality of being useless.” In Owen’s poem, he communicates the feelings of frustration and helplessness in the useless attempts to save the soldier through language.
The speaker of the poem commands others to move the soldier into the sun, trying to wake him. He reveals that the sun should be able to wake him because it “always … woke him” and because the Sun gives life to so many. He lists various lives fueled by the sun, which include the “seeds” and “the clays of a cold star.” Owen draws the reader into the frustrated and helpless feelings of the individuals who try to save this soldier. In the first stanza, the repetition of the word “this” highlights the fact that only on this day does the Sun’s power seem to be extinguished. In the last two lines of the poem, the speaker asks a question. The words “fatuous” and “at all” underline the meaning of futility, conveying frustration that their efforts are not producing evident results. The soldier does not wake despite their efforts, portraying the futility of their attempts.
Monday, December 17, 2007
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