futility
DESCRIPTION
Futility. Wilfred Owen. Futility (noun) pointlessness – a lack of usefulness or effectiveness pointless action - an action that has no use, purpose or effect. The story of the poem. Written in 1918. About this time Owen categorised his poems, FUTILITY coming under the heading "Grief". - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Futility
Wilfred Owen
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Futility (noun)
1. pointlessness – a lack of usefulness or effectiveness
2. pointless action - an action that has no use, purpose or effect
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The story of the poem
• Written in 1918. About this time Owen categorised his poems, FUTILITY coming under the heading "Grief".
• The front line on a bright winter morning. A soldier has recently died though we don't know precisely how or when. Owen appears to have known him and something of his background.
• He ponders nature's power to create life, setting it against the futility of death.
• The problem Owen faces in Futility is how to reconcile the miracle of creation with the evil of death and waste.
• Owen wonders ‘what is the point?’…
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Quotes + this shows…
• The sun is personified throughout the poem – select lines where this happens. (C)
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Language analysis List the connotations of
these words… (B)
• Gently• Kind• Warm• Cold • Sunbeam
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Meaning and Structure (A)
• What does the final line of the poem suggest?
• The poem has three rhetorical questions at the end. Why?
• Why did Owen write this poem?
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The poem makes us think about…
• Life – how it is created
• Nature – how the sun creates all life on earth
• Death – how it ultimately makes life futile