The first stanza is an octet which is contrasted with the second stanza which is a sestet. The persona uses primarily aural imagery in the first stanza and visual imagery in the second one. The first stanza talks about soldiers on the battlefields and their premature death whilst the second about those who stayed at home and are mourning the dead. The beginning of the second stanza brings forth a shift in setting, imagery, structure, tone and rhythm which contribute to the theme of the two nations. The structure of the poem is ironic and highlights the fatalism of war. Except for line 2 and 3 where the stress falls on the first syllable in the first pair in each line. The lines are written in iambic pentameter, as a line contains five pairs of syllables where the first syllable is unstressed and the second stressed. This is directly opposite to Owen’s poem which has a gloomy mood and is themed around war. The fact that Owen uses the structure of a sonnet is ironic because these ones have traditionally a joyful mood and are themed around love. One should note that Owen uses a half-rhyme for B. The Shakespearean rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFFE, GG. The Petrarchan sonnet is a variation of the Elizabethan sonnet as the fourteen lines are divided in two unequal stanzas. It is written in the form of a hybrid sonnet, as it combines the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet with the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet except for lines 11 and 12. The structure of Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth is ironic.
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