Faculdade de Letras- 2013/1

Professor : Marcel de Lima Santos, Modernist Literature

First Examination Take-Home Essay

NAME : ALEX ALVES DE PAULA

DATE : 04/08/13

CHOSEN QUESTION : How can you see Owen’s poem “Futility” concerning its

religious tone?

This essay is about the poem “Futility” by Wilfred Owen and deals with religious

tone through figurative meanings in its two stanzas. The poem itself portrays pity and

frustration regarding the “Futility” of war and its religious tone seems to intensify as the

narrator starts to question Mankind’s existence.

The reader can observe the narrator’s religious tone at the beginning of the first

stanza. It brings the personification of the sun, which is personified and described as

“gently” touching the man, waking up him from sleep. It seems that the sun mentioned

in the first verse by the lyrical I is related to an unknown fellow soldier who died in the

war. Basically, the first verse describes the speaker’s dead friend and possibly the way

that he loved the sun. The lyrical I believes that by “moving him into the sun” his mate

can be revived. The nature represented by the sun is the only one that can help his dead

friend. The sun is seen by the lyrical I as an almighty God who has absolute powers and

is able to bring his friend back to life. We can see that the sun is considered here as an

image of respect and worship as well as Jesus Christ is revered by Catholics.

It’s clear in the first stanza that the narrator begs for the resurrection of his fellow

soldier : “If anything might rouse him now The kind old sun will know”. This also

shows us that the sun is one more time personified by the speaker referring it as “kind”

and “old sun” is the only thing that can save his mate since it could be a metaphor for

God with miracle powers. Everybody knows that the sun gives energy and life to the

planet and its reference in this poem makes us think about our human condition since

we are always questioning the existence of the universe.

The second stanza brings religious questions and the figurative meanings deal

with mankind’s existence. We can see clearly that the religious tone seems to intensify

as the narrator starts to question the creation due to his frustration regarding the death

and the horrors of war. “Think how it wakes the seeds”: “The seeds” means

metaphorically life in general on earth. According to Christianity, life is a gift of God

and everyone on earth owns soul. All of us are made of flesh and bone, but we have our

spirit which is considered eternal. It seems “the seeds” is compared to spirits that never

come to an end. As we know a new plant is able to grow from a seed and the narrator

believes that the sun has the capacity of bringing life to earth as well as bringing his

fellow soldier back to life since everything on earth depends on the sun to survive. The

second verse lead us to think when everything started before the sun brought life to our

planet : “Woke, once, the clays of a cold star”. “Cold star” represents the planet earth

and portrays the beginning of mankind’s existence when the earth was only a cold

place. The word “clays” could be an allusion to the bible in the book of Genesis in the

Old Testament, in which Adam was made of clay. The tone here makes the reader think

how complex the nature and mankind are to understand and their creation is extremely

delicate.

Finally the poem itself portrays pity and frustration regarding the “Futility” of

war and its religious tone seems to intensify as the narrator starts to question mankind’s

existence. The next religious questions show us how sad and sickened the lyrical I is

because of the horrors of war.” Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides, Full-nerved—

still warm—too hard to stir?” This shows us that the war is a very sad reality. If we

think that a man is the main creation of God , his destruction through war is

inacceptable. “Was it for this the clay grew tall?”: We can see the narrator’s frustration

and his deception related to the fate of his friend, whose life has been taken away by the

war. “—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth’s sleep at all?” : This final

question lead us to think about the existence of mankind and certainly reveals the lyrical

I’s disappointment against the “Futility” of war. The last three questions are a reference

to the insignificance of human life . We were not created by God to die as a soldier who

wasted his life fighting in a war.

In short, this poem brings a lot of interpretations related to religious tone through

figurative meanings in its two stanzas and lead us to think how our existence seems

meaningless when we lost our lives early. This make us feel very small in the universe.

The reader can observe the importance of it in terms of questioning our own existence.

REFERENCES :

The Theme of ‘Futility’ in War Poetryby Ahmad Abu Baker ,

available on:http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Abu_Baker2.pdf

The impact of the First World War on the poetry ofWilfred Owen Mohammad Riaz Mahmud available on:

http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Abu_Baker2.pdf