An Analysis of Wilfred Owen's poem Futility

 

Wilfred Owen's poem Futility, contains fourteen lines and the poem shares this feature with sonnets. There are two verses, each of seven lines - a septet. Septets do not have any rhyming requirements (Baldwin, 2003) but in this poem, the rhymes are abcbcdc in verse 1, and abcdefe in verse two. But if 'snow', 'now', and 'know' can be said to be a sort of visual rhyme or what Stallworthy calls Owen's 'pioneering use of 'pararhymes'' (Stallworthy, 2008, p xxxiii) then the pattern on the first verse reads as abcbccc, and this adds a weight and an emphasis to the verse ending. (A pararhyme is partial rhyme based on different vowels within the same consonants (Baldwin, 2003)). If ‘star’ and ‘stir’ can be said to be a visual rhyme, then the pattern in the second verse reads as abcbefe. And if 'tall', 'toil', and 'all' in verse two are pararhymes, then the pattern reads as abcbeee and again, this adds some additional gravity to the verse ending. Pararhymes also add a certain disruption which reflects the agitated mood of verse two in a better way than if perfect rhymes had been used. Interestingly perhaps, if the last word of l.9 had been made to rhyme with the last words in l.12 and l.14, then the second verse pattern would have been the same as the first verse, but this would not then be congruent with the mood and tone Owen is creating.

 

As well as these rhyming patterns, the poem uses repeated word sounds (assonance) such as the 'o' sound in verse one (awoke, home, sown, woke, snow, old and know) and the 'ee' and 'a' sounds in verse two (seeds, achieved, and sleep; and wakes, clay and break). The 'o' sounds are gentle and fit into the mood of the first verse whilst the 'ee' and 'a' sounds better fit with the more aggravated mood of verse two.

 

The meter of the poem is accentuated-syllabic where both the 'accents (stresses) and syllables are measured and counted' (Strand and Boland, 2000, p159). I think in the first line, the stresses are (in bold) 'Move him into the sun' and this pattern is repeated in the first line of the second verse: 'Think how it wakes the seed'. This use of the stress or emphasis on the first syllable is called a trochee (ibid) and there is a slightly similar pattern in lines 4 and 11. However, the stresses in other lines use an iambic meter where each line is built up of two syllable chunks with the stress or emphasis on the second syllable for example, 'The kind old sun will know' (l.7).

 

This last example also shows the use of a 'minor key' downward intonation of the last word of the verse ('know') and this repeats in the last word of verse two ('all'). The effect of this 'dying fall', (Stallworthy, 2014, pxix) is to create additional poignancy and weight.

 

The first and last lines are six syllables while all the other lines are eight syllables. This provides a consistent structure for the poem and also a steady rhythm. The rhythm is not rushed but there is a steady pace to it, slightly faster and a little more urgent that a pentameter would achieve. And this is reflective perhaps of the tone of the poet’s observing and questioning - neither ambling or rushed but somewhere in a purposeful in-between.

 

The tone of the poem is at first sombre yet without anguish. The words 'gently' in l.2 and 'whispering' in l.3 set this quiet, almost reverent tone. The waking of seeds (l.8), the waking of clays (l.9) portray a gradualness and gentleness, not sudden or violent. The title 'Futility' is best read in the same tone, not shouty or angry. But in the second verse there is more agitation, and it is more disconcerting - was dear life really meant for this?

 

In l.1 the poem conveys a gentleness, a careful caring and l.2 repeats this gentleness theme, and also evokes a looking back to life at home when once (I wonder if he is thinking of one specific occasion) the sun awoke him. In l.3 the poem suggests that the sun might be waking him to tell him to get on with finishing fields half sown. Or is this line a reference to his absence - he left home for the front with the sowing unfinished, and the tasks of normal life not just interrupted but severed by his going away. Yet in l.4, even in France there is some sort of continuity - the sun shines even here, it awakes him even here as it always did. But in l.5, he cannot be roused and there is snow and not sun, and 'this morning' and 'this snow' bring us to the present. l.6 speaks of a pessimism, a hopelessness that it would take a miracle for anything to rouse him now and given that a miracle is needed, it just maybe the rising sun (l.7) will supply it . The ‘kind old sun’ portrays a benevolence, and a wisdom as well as a life-giver.

 

In l.8, the poet muses that the sun might rouse the dead or sleeping man in the same way it's rays awake the seeds and in the same way it once woke ‘the clays of a cold star’ (l.9). This likely refers to the substance of the earth from which all life is made. And the ‘cold star’ is presumably the earth before it had life breathed into it by a warming sun. The next two lines ask almost incredulously why can’t limbs that were looked after, built up strong, that are still warm, still with their nerves in place - why can’t they now be roused and awakened? And in l.12 a plaintively question asks whether it was just to be killed that the soldier’s limbs (his ‘clay’) grew tall and full grown. Another plaintive question follows in l.13 - what purpose was there that made sunbeams able to ‘toil’ and to ‘break earth’s sleep’ if it cannot break the sleep of the dead. What is the point of a warming sun if it cannot awaken from death’s sleep?

 

I don't think these questions are simply rhetorical. They are emotionally stronger than that and convey despairing cry and a deep caring and compassion for the dead soldier - for any dead soldier. And if they are not rhetorical, then it is interesting to contemplate who it might be aimed at. Is it a questioning of those who would glorify war?

 

The poem is representative of a slowly emerging spirit of disillusionment and cruelty of war. As such, it ran counter to the flow of the predominant narrative of glorification and nationalist fervour epitomised by Rupert Brooke and others. I don't think it can be read in any other way than a searing criticism of war. There is no nuance, no sense of war's purpose or its contradictions and complexities. Even though Owen himself allegedly 'had no principled aversion to fighting' (in Stallworthy, 2014, px), he describes the 'deflowering of Europe' and 'bodies melted down to pay for political statues'(ibid).

 

The poem was it written in May, 1918 in Ripon, six months after Owen was discharged from Craiglockhart hospital and six months before he died. Owen had been treated at Craiglockhart for shell shock and the therapy there assumed that this condition was 'evidence neither of cowardice nor of insanity but rather as the reaction of ordinary men to extraordinary circumstances.' (SCRAN, no date). Owen was encouraged to write (and to edit the hospital magazine The Hydra) as part of the therapy. I'm not sure if the poem could be described as healing - its too threaded with unresolved anguish for that. But it could I suppose have been performed some form of cathartic purpose. It was published in June 1918 in The Nation (Stallworthy, 2008, pxv) but this and Owen's other poems were not widely known at this time (MacMillan, 2020, p275).

 

The manuscript version (British Library) is substantially the same as the published one except for lines 10 and 11 which were re-worked considerably. And interestingly, the whole handwritten poem is crossed out with a wavy blue line - the text itself written in black.

 

In conclusion, Owen is trying to reconcile the forces of creation with the forces of destruction in war. He is asking uncomfortable questions and bearing witness to the futility of life in the face of inevitable death. But likely, he is also describing his disillusionment regarding futility of war, and questioning whether the ends can ever justify the means. And this is perhaps the way in which the poem (and many of his others) have been interpreted and remembered. They have contributed to 'shape a particular and powerful view of the war' (MacMillan, 2020, p164, 165) as 'pointless, foolish, unnecessary - a futile conflict' (Todman, 2005, p121) and 'an evil productive of nothing' (MacMillan, 2020, p12).

 

1499 words

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Baldwin, Emma. "Pararhyme". Poem Analysis, [Online] Available at https://poemanalysis.com/literary-device/pararhyme/. Accessed 17 November 2023.

 

British Library Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918). Futility The British Library / The Wilfred Owen Literary Estate via First World War Poetry Digital Archive, [Online] Available at http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/4594. Accessed 17/11/23

 

MacMillan, M (2020) War; How Conflict Shaped Us London, Profile Books

 

SCRAN (no date) [Online] Available at https://sites.scran.ac.uk/Warp/index.htm Accessed 30/10/23

 

Silkin, Jon (ed.), (1979) The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry, Harmondsworth, Penguin.

Stallworthy, J (ed) (2008) Wilfred Owen The War Poems Chatto and Windrus, London

 

Stallworthy, J (ed) (2014) Wilfred Owen, Selected Poems Faber and Faber, London

 

Strand, M., and Boland, E., (2000) The Making of a Poem Norton, New York

 

Todman, Dan, 2005 The Great War: Myth and Memory, London, Hambledon Continuum.

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Baldwin, Emma. "Pararhyme". Poem Analysis, [Online] Available at https://poemanalysis.com/literary-device/pararhyme/. Accessed 17 November 2023.

Beckett, I. F.W., (2001) (1st edn) The Great War 1914–1918, Harlow, Pearson Education Limited

 

British Library Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918). Futility The British Library / The Wilfred Owen Literary Estate via First World War Poetry Digital Archive, [Online] Available at http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/4594. Accessed 17/11/23

 

Carey, J., (2021) A Little History of Poetry Yale University Press, Newhaven and London

 

Egremont, M, (2018) World War 1 Connell Publishing

 

Fussell, P (2000) The Great War and Modern Memory, Oxford University Press, Oxford

 

Kershaw, I (2016) To Hell and Back Europe 1914-1949 Penguin Random House

 

Kneisley, J., (2019) Futility. LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, [Online} Available at https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/wilfred-owen/futility Accessed 27/10/23

 

Marr, A (2015) We British, The Poetry of the People 4th Estate, London

 

MacMillan, M (2020) War; How Conflict Shaped Us London, Profile Books

 

McPhail, H, (2018) Wilfred Owen's Shrewsbury Logaston Press, Eardisley.

 

SCRAN (no date) [Online] Available at https://sites.scran.ac.uk/Warp/index.htm Accessed 30/10/23

 

Sheffield, G (2019) A Short History of the First World War, London, One World Publications

 

Silkin, Jon (ed.), (1979) The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry, Harmondsworth, Penguin.

Stallworthy, J (ed) (2008) Wilfred Owen The War Poems Chatto and Windrus, London

 

Stallworthy, J (ed) (2014) Wilfred Owen, Selected Poems Faber and Faber, London

 

Stevenson, D (2012) 1914, 1918, The History of the First World War. London, Penguin Random House.

 

Strachan, H., (2003) The First World War, A New Illustrated History, London, Simon and Schuster

 

Strand, M., and Boland, E., (2000) The Making of a Poem Norton, New York

 

Todman, Dan, 2005 The Great War: Myth and Memory, London, Hambledon Continuum.

 

Walter, G (ed) (2006) The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry Penguin, London

 

Woods, H. R. (2022) Rule, Nostalgia Penguin

 

 

 

Appendix

 

Futility

BY WILFRED OWEN

Move him into the sun—

Gently its touch awoke him once,

At home, whispering of fields half-sown.

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?