Anthem For Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen
1. What passing-bells for these who.die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
2. Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes,
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pal;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient ninds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
What the Poem Is Saying
Owen's poem asks two questions and answers both with absence. The first is what rites mark the dead who fall "as cattle". The answer is nothing holy: only gunfire, rifle rattle and wailing shells stand in for bells, prayers and mourning. Even the bugles come from home, not the battlefield.
The second question is what candles can speed the dead on. Owen moves the ceremony away from the church and into the people left behind. The light is in boys' eyes, the pall is the paleness of girls' brows, the flowers are patient tenderness, and each dusk is a closing of blinds.
So the poem turns an anthem into a quiet, private funeral. Keep the two questions in mind when you revise it: they carry the whole structure.