Upload
kelley-earl-mclaughlin
View
221
Download
1
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Futility (noun)
1. pointlessness – a lack of usefulness or effectiveness
2. 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".
• 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?’…
Quotes + this shows…
• The sun is personified throughout the poem – select lines where this happens. (C)
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?