Theory question 112
Non-African PoetryLiterature 2, Section D
How does Owen bring out the pity of war in Futility?
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Model answer
Wilfred Owen poem: a dead young soldier is moved into the sun.
The sun once woke him at home in the fields; now it cannot.
Rhetorical questions: 'Was it for this the clay grew tall?'
Contrast between life-giving sun and the dead body; 'fatuous sunbeams'.
Mood of grief and questioning of creation itself.
Pity: waste of young life; anger at the meaninglessness of war.
Explanation
Show the devices and the feelings they create.