Futility Poem by Wilfred Owen

Futility

Rating: 3.2


1 Move him into the sun--
2 Gently its touch awoke him once,
3 At home, whispering of fields unsown.
4 Always it awoke him, even in France,
5 Until this morning and this snow.
6 If anything might rouse him now
7 The kind old sun will know.

8 Think how it wakes the seeds--
9 Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
10 Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides
11 Full-nerved,--still warm,--too hard to stir?
12 Was it for this the clay grew tall?
13 --O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
14 To break earth's sleep at all?

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Ian Fraser 26 July 2011

One of the most extraordinary things about Owen is that however great the emotion he still managed to write in wonderfully controlled classical verse. This is another sonnet. Towards the end Owen invented his own unique way of transforming these classical forms. Here it is mainly in the use of half-rhymes star/ stir, seeds/ sides etc. It is almost as if the old forms are dying and fading away before our eyes. No other writer is like Owen. I cannot think for the life of me why so many people only give him 6 or 7.

34 18 Reply
Mike Adam 25 June 2009

Move him into the sun Its warmer there

15 27 Reply
Jamie Gfgdfg 09 November 2005

A very sad and poignant poem. It sums up the absoloute absurdity of war very well. One of my favourites.

16 18 Reply
Robert Howard 14 August 2006

This great song of the pathos and waste of war is set for tenor voice in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem.

13 20 Reply
Don Fox 28 June 2018

Pain perfect penned.

0 0 Reply
Sriranji Aratisankar 06 March 2018

The old sun know the answer Once the sleep of the earth will be broken.

0 0 Reply
Primrose Tee 05 May 2014

i poems like these...very good

11 13 Reply
Dawn Fuzan 27 April 2014

I like this one, its Good

9 13 Reply
Erica Byrne 22 April 2013

This is an iconic poem, full of sadness of what the world wars are really like. True masterpieces and forever a favorite of mine.

16 13 Reply
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Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen

Shropshire / England
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