Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
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,
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?
Given that the word futility means pointlessness explain the relevance of the title to the poem.
What do you think is the most significant phrase in the poem?
If you had to choose a maximum of three words to represent the meaning / feeling of the poem what would they be? Try to briefly explain your choice.
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ReplyDeleteHello Micky Flanagan Here, I have one Request before you read my,"piece" I would like you,Terrance Pope,(I know you noticed the commas) To play this music in the background
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fq9bG_tW2M
The word futility refers to the poem in many ways,one of which is the fact that it could referring to the pointlessness of war,that people are dying in a futile attempts to a fight someone else's war when clearly it is futile... as people die for a country and shall not be remembered asking if their death was...futile.
on the other hand it could be referring to the futility of trying to save a friends life even tho the attempt is futile,nobody in the right mind would like to see a friend die,everybody is going to try their hardest to try and try even if the attempts are futile;it is a basic way of showing a harsh truth.
For me the most,"hypothetically","hard hitting" phrase in the stanzas is,"To break earth’s sleep at all?" this asks us was the characters death...in vein... and will he/her be remembered at all for their duty as a solider who gave up the most important thing they have,their life,to not even be remembered by anyone or anything for the duties because I think the phrase,"To break earth’s sleep at all?" personifies earth as a bouncer in some ways as it represents the amount of deaths that have gone on it also asks are the deaths really rare anymore? does the ground need them?
Personally I would go as far to personify the ground as,"full" turning down a meal? showing us that this boy wasn't special enough to be remembered?
-Micky
(dave)
The pope knows everything.
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ReplyDeleteHello, Mr Spock here coming to you from lightyears away. I hacked onto Blogspot from near my home planet of Vulcan and I was looking through and was taken by this one.
ReplyDeleteBack on my home planet of Vulcan we read and examined this peice of fine craftsmanship. The Word 'Futility' may refer to the poem in many ways. It could be that it's sayingthat war is a waste of time and illogical. (The quality of having no useful result; uselessness) That it's a lack of importance and a futile act.
I believe that the most significant phrase in the poem is 'The kind old sun will know'. Me and Kirk are both on the same mind of the subject. We both believe that this because its saying that the sun is in control being in the centre of the universe. I mean we should know, we've been there...
I hope you listen to my point and live a long and prosperous life on Earth. From all on the U.S.S Enterprise, Live Long and Prosper.
(Sam)
The word futility refers to a number of things such as ineffectiveness, pointlessness and even a feeling of emptiness this could be what the poet, Wilfred Owen, could be feeling while writing the poem, these words could also make the reader feel a sense of pointlessness. All these feelings build a picture to describe what the writer’s point is, that war is unnecessary and a terrible waste of human life; that war has no honor in it at all.
ReplyDeleteI think the most significant phrase in the poem is, “O what made fatuous sunbeams toil” this phrase interests me because the word ‘fatuous’ means stupid / foolish yet the word ‘toil’ means effort / labor, so essentially the sunbeams are ‘stupid workers’ this is a form of personification but also has a meaning behind it. The sunbeams give life to the planet, you could put it as ‘working’ for the planet, yet they are ‘stupid’ this means that the sunbeams, no matter how ancient and powerful, have a flaw or action they can’t perform, this is shown by, “Full-nerved—still warm—too hard to stir?” notice, “too hard to stir?” in this case stir means move / agitate, the poet could be indirectly asking the question of why do the sunbeams, that give the planet so much life, have this flaw of not bringing back the dead / lifeless?
If I had to choose a word that describes the feeling of the poem I would choose useless or fruitless because that must be how this person is feeling as they can’t do anything about losing their friends or family to war except mourn for them.
If I had to choose a word that describes the meaning of the poem I would choose damaged or impaired because it shows the outcome of war as crippling / hurt, this also shows the outcome of war to always be something very negative to somebody.
Hi, I'm Gabe Newell. Recently the Steam Summer Sale has just ended, so I've decided to devote my time to exploring the internet rather than working on Half-Life 3. After noticing this, I've decided to delay Half-Life 3 forever more and answer your question.
ReplyDeleteI believe the title, Futility, is relevant in a way that many things are declared as useless indirectly (as in without using the word directly). For instance, take: "fatuous sunbeams", by Google's definition of the word, it is "Silly and pointless." Pointlessness is equal to useless, hence it is futile. There are multiple other instances I could point out, but I'm busy adding more unnecessary hats to Team Fortress 2.
I would also note "—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil" as the most relevant line within the poem. As stated, fatuous means silly. Toil on the other hand means working, so it is stating: "silly sunbeams work" This could be saying that the sunbeams are silly because their work is simply not enough for what is truly needed.
Finally, I would again say "fatuous" and "toil" are the words that most represent the poem. Putting them together would imply useless work, which is what war, the poem's subject, is widely acknowledged as.
I can be reached at gaben@valvesoftware.com and my favorite class is the Spy. Thanks and have fun!
(ellis)
Well,
ReplyDeleteI am honoured by the illustrious attention that this blog has attracted.
I apologise for the delay in continuance but my flat has been a decorating site for a week.
We are back in business.
Proceed for success.