The theme for Anthem For Doomed Youth is the atrocities of war and the appalling consequences the

victims have to bear. The speaker employs the use of the repetition of the word only the monstrous anger of the guns, only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle as he wants to emphasize his repulsion towards the use of guns and rifles to win a war. Wilfred Owen also uses personification as one of the literary devices in the poem for example wailing shells. It gives a human expression to an inanimate object and helps the reader to think of the horrible, loud screams released by the bombs used in war. With the repetition of no and nor in lines 5 and 6, it creates a visual imagery for the reader on how there are not many civilians left who have survived. Stanza 1 consists of 8 lines whereas stanza 2 consists of 6 lines. The basic rhyme of the first stanza is a-b-a-b-c-d-c-e. In the next stanza, the basic rhyme is a-b-b-a-c-c. This creates a rather rhythmic poem with a nice twist at certain lines. It also a rather structured poem as most of the lines consists of roughly the same number of words. Metaphors such as their flowers the tenderness of patient minds are used in the poem as well. Flowers are usually gentle, sensitive creatures that need patience and perseverance to wait for it to bloom properly. This is an indirect comparison to the wait for the young warriors to come back from the war by the girls. Onomatopoeia was used as well with words like patter and rattle. This helps the reader listen and imagine the sounds produced by rifles and guns in a war. In a nutshell, the poem was written to convey the speakers criticism towards war in all forms. To Wilfred Owen, there was no benefit to be gained out of this bloodbath. He frequently uses strong adjectives to describe the solemnness and graveness when the war has a taken a toll on the people.