However, in the meat grinder of the Western Front, it is the complete opposite. Typically, people that die outside of the war get a proper send-off with a formal funeral service, which many would expect to be a basic human right. This is ironic as we know that there will not be a formal funeral for the soldiers and that there won’t be any candles, just the sky garishly lit up with explosives. Owen then asks the reader: “What candles may be held to speed them all? / Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes/ Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes”.

The simile also compares the death of the soldiers to the death of cattle as it shows that the soldiers are trapped at the mercy of others – similar to a slaughterhouse – indicating that there isn’t much hope in escaping death. What Owen is alluding to here, is the fact the parish church bells which were used to lament the dead are starkly absent on the battlefield and that instead of the bells, the only sound giving the soldiers a send-off is the “stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle”. Owen begins the poem with a rhetorical question: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?”. After analysing the poem, I found that Owen uses a range of language features to depict the dehumanisation of war. Wilfred Owen presents the dehumanisation of the young soldiers in the meat grinder of the Western Front by sharing his experiences of war, to challenge society’s patriotic mindset.

Owen anthem for doomed youth