14. Futility - Brebner High School

Futility
Wilfred Owen
(1893-1918)

The Poet
• Wilfred Edward Salter
Owen was an English poet
and soldier, one of the leading
poets of the First World War.
• His shocking, realistic war
poetry on the horrors of
trenches and gas warfare stood
in contrast to both the public
perception of war at the time,
and to the confidently patriotic
verse written earlier by other
war poets.

The Poet
• Among his best-known works
— most of which were
published posthumously — are
"Dulce et Decorum Est",
"Insensibility", "Anthem for
Doomed Youth", "Futility" and
"Strange Meeting".
• He suffered several traumatic
experiences during his service
in the military.
• One week before the end of the
war he was shot in the head
and killed.

Futility
Move him into the sun –
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow. 5
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, 10
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?

Modern Sonnet
• 14 lines
• Contains elements of both or neither
Shakespearean and Italian sonnets.
In context of this sonnet:
• 2 stanzas
• Change in tone from stanza 1 to stanza 2
• ababccc dedefff

Line 1
Move him into the sun –
• The ‘him’ is a fallen soldier.
• The poet establishes the
importance of the young man
by mentioning him first.
• Moving him into the sun
(warmth) shows the speaker’s
compassion for the fallen
soldier.

Line 2
Gently its touch awoke him once,
• Personification
• The poet is explaining why he
wants to move the fallen
soldier into the sun.
• He is clinging to en empty
hope that the soldier might
just be sleeping, like he had
been every other time the sun
had awoken him.
• ‘once’ refers to his past.
• The speaker sees him as an
individual with a story.

Line 3
At home, whispering of fields unsown,
• Personification
• The speaker knew the young
man, knows his past.
• His references to the soldier’s
past emphasises his feelings
that they (young men) should
not have been fighting this
war.
• Their lives should have
followed a different path.
• In the case of this soldier he
should have been planting and
working on his farm.

Line 4
Always it woke him, even in France
• The speaker says that the
young man was always
awakened by the sunrise, even
in France.
• This is a direct reference to the
war, they were stationed in
France.

Line 5
Until this morning and this snow.
• The use of ‘this’ to refer to the
day and the weather shows
that it was different to any
other morning, there was
something different to this
day.
• It refers to a battle.
• The reference to the snow tells
us that the sun did not help on
this morning.
• The cold was both literal and
metaphorical (loss).

Line 6-7
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
• There is desperation in the
speaker’s tone.
• He is looking for something
that might prove that the
fallen soldier is just sleeping
and can be roused (awoken).
• The lines are reminiscent of a
line from a children’s story.
• This reflects innocence and a
child-like hope.
• The sun is again personified
and representative of good.

Line 8
Think how it wakes the seeds –
• In this stanza the speaker tries
to rationalise why the sun can
give life to so many other
things, but not his friend.
• It is personified throughout.
• In this line he says it ‘wakes’
the seeds. Seedlings need
warmth in order to germinate.

Line 9
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
• This is both an evolutional and
creationist reference.
• Metaphor
• The cold star is earth, before
life developed.
• The clay represents life, based
on the biblical idea that
humans were created from the
clay of the earth.

Line 10-11
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,
full-nerved – still warm – too hard to stir?
• The speaker does not
understand how the sun can
give life to everything, but is
unable to revive his friend.
• He states that everything the
young man needs to sustain
life is there.
• He has his limbs and nerves,
his body is still warm.
• ‘dear-achieved’ implies that
the speaker realises the
wonder of the human body.

Line 12
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
• There is despair and bitterness
in the speaker’s tone.
• Biblical reference.
• Personification
• He asks if this type of
savagery, the deaths of young
men, was what God had in
mind for creation.

Line 13-14
O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all?
• Personification
• ‘O’ is a desperate cry.
• The speaker has lost all hope.
• He asks why we bother with
life.
• Why did God bother to create
humans (with effort – toil) if
all they do is destroy?
• He implies that earth was
peaceful (sleep) before.
• He refers to the sunbeams as
pointless and foolish.