Futility

Owen, Wilfred

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poem

Annotated by:
Coulehan, Jack
  • Date of entry: Oct-27-1999

Summary

This poem begins: "Move him into the sun." It has snowed overnight, but now it grows warmer. The sun has always awakened him before, but will it now? "Think how it wakes the seeds." It even gave life to "the clays of a cold star." Surely, there must be more warmth, more life, and more meaning than this. "O what made fatuous sunbeams toil / To break earth's sleep at all?" [14 lines]

Commentary

My wounded comrade has died during the night. What is the point of it all?

Primary Source

Poems of Wilfred Owen

Publisher

Chatto & Windus

Place Published

London

Edition

1963