Anthem for Doomed Youth
By , and

Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Students and Staff of the University of Virginia
    

Sources

London : Chatto & Windus, 1920This edition has been transcribed from the Internet Archive's edition.

Editorial Statements

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Original spelling and capitalization is retained, though the long s has been silently modernized and ligatured forms are not encoded.

Hyphenation has not been retained, except where necessary for the sense of the word.

Page breaks have been retained. Catchwords, signatures, and running headers have not.

Materials have been transcribed from and checked against first editions, where possible. See the Sources section for more information.


Citation

Owen, Wilfred. "Anthem for Doomed Youth". Poems, Chatto & Windus, 1920 , 11 . Literature in Context: An Open Anthology. http://anthologydev.lib.virginia.edu/work/Owen/owen-anthem. Accessed: 2024-11-19T04:37:43.577Z
TEST Audio
Title Page POEMS
BY WILFRED OWEN
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
SIEGFRIED SASSOON






LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1920
11 ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH 1WHAT passing-bells for these who die as cattle? 2Only the monstrous anger of the guns. 3Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle 4Can patter out their hasty orisons. 5No mockeries for them; no prayers nor bells, 6Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,— 7The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; 8And bugles calling for them from sad shires. 9What candles may be held to speed them all? 10Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes 11Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. 12The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; 13Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, 14And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Footnotes