Anthem for Doomed Youth

“Anthem for Doomed Youth” is a poem possessing some characteristics of a Petrarchan sonnet, named after the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch. A Petrarchan sonnet is a poem of 14 lines that consists of an octave (the first eight lines) and a sestet (the final six lines). There is usually a “turn” in the thought that begins with the sestet. In “Anthem,” the octave is full of the harsh sounds of battle in France, whereas the imagery in the sestet is quieter and suggests a different location—back home in England. Owen links the octave and sestet, as the first lines of each are formed as questions and both lines begin with the same word: “What.”

The rhyme scheme in Owen’s poem does not follow that of a traditional Petrarchan sonnet. The octave follows the English or Shakespearean sonnet. The end of Line 1 (“cattle”) rhymes with Line 3 (“rattle”), and Line 2 (“of the guns”) is a near rhyme with Line 4 (“orisons”). Similarly, Line 5 rhymes with Line 7, and Line 6 with Line 8. The rhyme scheme can be represented by the letters ABAB CDCD, whereas the octave in the Petrarchan sonnet rhymes ABBA ABBA.