Futility

In 1915, Owen enlisted in the army and in December 1916 was sent to France. Within two
weeks of his arrival, he was commanding a platoon on the front line. In the midst of heavy
gunfire, he waded for miles through trenches two feet deep in water with the constant threat
of gas attacks. After being blown into the air by a shell, Owen spent several days sheltering
in a hole near the corpse of a fellow officer, and was shortly after diagnosed with shell shock.
In June 1917 he was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital, where he spent four months. Here
Owen wrote many poems and became editor of the Hospital magazine, Hydra. In 1918, Owen
returned to the front during the final stages of the war. He fought a fierce battle and was
awarded the Military Cross for his bravery. He was killed, at the age of 25, while leading his
men across the Sambre and Oise Canal near Ors, on 4 November – just one week before
the Armistice was declared.

Despite Wilfred Owen’s prodigious writing, only five poems were ever published in his lifetime
– probably because of his strong anti-war sentiment, which would not have been in line with
British policy at the time, particularly in their attempt to gather rather more and more people
to sign up for the war.

Futility is a resonant criticism of the uselessness of war. The poem reveals the apathetic
treatment of soldiers. The latter suffer from inflictive decrees, which keep on pushing them
into their grave. The poem takes the form of a short elegy, mourning an unnamed soldier lying
dead in the snow in France. The speaker begins with a hopeful tone, wanting the sun to
“rouse” the dead body, but shifts to one of confusion and disillusionment upon recognizing
that death will always conquer life.

So much is said about heroism of the war; but now people should shun these false ideals,
and before taking an action they also should think of the results that war brings.

Summary
“Futility” as a Representative of Life and Death: The poem starts when the poet is asking
another person to move the dead body of a soldier gently. It mainly describes the aftermath
of a war. He is telling him to turn his face toward the sun so that he could see it. He, then,
adds to the knowledge of the other present there that the soldier used to wake up and get up
with the sun but now only the sun knows when he will get up, as he is dead now. It was just
until this morning but now only the sun is aware when he will get up like the seeds that the
sun makes germinate. The poet questions death whether it takes away every ability of the
body that is dead now. The poet alludes to the man’s end of life as mentioned in the most
religious texts that man created from the clay to live, grow and have a family. In short, the
death of the soldier makes him question the sun, the earth, and life itself.

Stanza 1:
The speaker is hopeful that the sun can revive the dead soldier.
The tone is respectful and hopeful.
The sun stands as a metaphor for the Giver of Life. Once the sun’s touch did awaken the
man in question. Once upon a time, he was ‘at home’. “At home” signifies that the man was
comfortable and satisfied. It is juxtaposed with “snow”, which is a powerful emblem of death,
decay and destruction, opposing the warmth and life-giving qualities of the sun.
The lines also refer to the inevitability of Death, and hollowness of life, hence, the title.

• “Move him into the sun” symbolises the sun as a healer, which can soothe the sufferer by
taking him down the memory lane back home.
• “At home” is where the soldiers want to be and desire to return. The battlefield and its
aftermath are oppressive. To them, the sun rekindles the homely atmosphere which they
are yearning for.
• “whispering of fields unsown” suggests the possibility of fields yet to be sown, dreams yet
to be realised
• “even in France” refers to the multiple areas where the soldiers were sent.
• “this snow” symbolises the coldness of death and their immediate environment. The
soldiers are not dying as martyrs, as valiant fighters of a cause. Instead, their background
and situation contribute to their death. They are unarmed against the cold snow as they
are thinly clothed and badly fed.
• “If anything might rouse him now, The kind old sun will know.” : The Sun changes its status
and becomes a persona / a witness who is the well-wisher of the soldiers but is more of a
silent observer. The Sun is helpless and can only advise. The poet asks the other soldiers
to follow the guidance of the sun to find warmth, sustenance for survival.
• “Kind old sun” suggests its agelessness; it is experienced and knows everything. It is kind
and beholds the soldiers with empathy but cannot do anything for them.
• The sun is used as a symbol for it creates the image of wellness and of being cared for.
• The common factor remains the Sun, which conjures the audience to assess the Sun as
a silent witness of the woes of the soldiers. The Sun has seen them grow as boys, enlist
as soldiers and now die unnecessarily and while suffering.

Stanza 2:
The speaker becomes upset and angry, questioning why the Sun cannot revive the soldier if
it could bring life to an entire planet.
The tone is accusatory and resentful.
The Sun could wake vegetative entities like seeds, and the hard “clays of a cold stars”. While
it refreshed lifeless stars, why was it then incapable of endowing life to a rational being whose
significance cannot be understated?
Why cannot Nature then revive the aftermath of a man-made atrocity such as war?
The rhetorical question is aimed not only at the Sun, but also at the devastating concept of
war in general.

• “Think how it wakes the seeds”: the sunrays gives strength to the seeds to break out and
become seedlings. Hence the energy of the Sun is life-giving, can save the soldiers.
• The soldiers are compared to “seeds” to showcase their age. Now they are dying away
from their homeland, full of despair and bitter with their experiences.
• “Woke once the clays of a cold star”: The heat of the Sun has given life to Earth, hence it
should revive the Soldiers.
• At this point, the Soldiers, have a fantastically blind faith in the Sun to keep them alive, as
if it is their last hope; their ultimate try to remain alive as they are too young to die. Owen
shows the vulnerability of the soldiers who can and want to believe anything, just to remain
alive.
• “Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides / Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?”: If the
sun can give life to seeds buried deep under layers of the Earth, then it should be able to
revive a dying soldier, whose youth is so full of life. For the speaker, the Sun has
superpowers: it can give life and battle death. Again, the helplessness of those dying
soldiers is shown.
• “Was it for this that the clay grew tall”: the speaker questions the use of mankind being
created, if it was simply to die for “this” – war.
• “O what made fatuous sunbeams toil / To break earth’s sleep at all?: here the speaker
has lost confidence in the sun’s power. He questions the entire creation of lifeis
questioning the source of the Sun’s power. The Sun helps seeds when the latter are in a
precarious situation. In the same way, the Sun must look after the Soldiers and bring them
to life.
• The poet draws a similarity between the seeds and the soldiers: both are buried, but the
seeds emerge as alive and living, whereas the soldiers lay cold in their coffins.
• Owen indirectly questions the inefficacity of decision-makers who do not help the soldiers.

The term ‘futility’ also foregrounds the pointlessness of war. Moreover, it underlines the futility
of extinction.
The intention is to reveal how the soldiers were overlooked; the omnipresence of nature; the
youth of the soldiers; the immaturity; their untimely death; and their helplessness as they
cannot avoid dying.
Indeed, Owen consistently reminds the audience that the soldiers are too young, as the Sun
has witnessed their birth and how they played in the fields.
Owen whistle-blows about how the government ignores and pushes those boys into the jaws
of death knowingly.

Major Themes
• Death and Life
• Life of a soldier
• Futility of War
The poet goes into questioning mode when he sees his friend dead. He asks his other friend
to move his body to turn him to the sun that may make him get up but it does not happen.
This makes him question the life of a soldier who was alive yesterday and died today. Then
he also questions the birth or creation of life from the earth for which life is necessary. His
argument is that the sun which is responsible for life on the earth may force his friend to get
up and become living in front of his eyes.

The poem shows the use of symbols such as clay, warmth, and cold to explain life. Clay is
symbolic to birth, warmth and cold are symbolic to being alive and dead, respectively.