11年前，儿子Henry Zhu在温哥华东区的 Templeton Secondary School 读10年级。夏季的一天，我休息在家，儿子放学回来。
“老爸，我要请你帮忙了，” 儿子对我说。
“是什么事情？“ 我反问道。
” 英语课老师要我们读一首诗，然后写一篇essay,“ 他说。
“ 把诗给我看看。” 我向儿子伸过手去。
“是什么欧文的诗，“儿子答到。
”是Wilfred Owen的诗吧。标题是不是 Anthem for Doomed Youth，“我猜到。
”你怎么知道？“ 儿子感到有几分吃惊。
” 我读英语文学硕士的时候读过这首诗，写过一篇关于这首诗的eassy，" 我平静地说。
“一般老师们选他的诗给学生读，多半会选这一首。”
“那好，那好，有救了，我有救了，” 儿子兴奋地自言自语起来。
那天傍晚，吃过晚饭之后，我和儿子谈起了这位奔赴第一次世界大战战场的英国青年诗人Wilfred Owen。
我跟他谈到这首诗的最显著的两个literray devices: irony and imagery。我说，你读一读第一个诗节，那些摹声词是不是像战场上的炮弹和机关枪在鸣响？我告诉他，这些表达和模拟声音的词语所营造的听觉效果，就叫auditory imagery (听觉意象)。第二个诗节，visual imagery（视觉意象）占主导地位，象征死亡和悲伤的白色为主色调。
关于irony, 我得意地告诉他，我在我自己essay的结尾提到“具有讽刺意味的是，这首诗也成了诗人自己的挽歌”。我的导师Prof. David Lawson看了我的作业后，十分满意，慷慨地给了我一个A+。令人惋惜的是， 写完这首诗的二十一天后，Wilfred Owen本人就倒在了战场上，英国文学史上也就少了一位天才诗人。
儿子跟我交谈了之后，就写下了下面这篇文章。今天，我把它按原样发布出来，跟10年级的同学们分享。
The idea of warfare has fascinated humankind for a long time. We often have a mixed feelings towards it: we remember the glory of victory and the names of heroes in the battlefield, or we may think of the bloodshed and loss of human lives. Wilfred Owen's poem, Anthem for Doomed Youth, depicts the dark side of war and laments the wasteful death of youth. Through the effective and ingenious use of irony and imagery, the poet skillfully expressed his overall feeling of disgust and outrage towards war.
The titile of the poem, Anthem for Doomed Youth, conveys a sense of irony: when we hear the word anthem, we think of O' Canada or other national anthems, which gives us a sense of glory and patriotism; yet, the young soldiers ready to fight for their country are "doomed" --- they will "die as cattle", slaughtered mercilessly. In the first line, the poet asks, rhetorically, how their death will be noticed. Then he answers, with irony, that only the roar of guns and rifles is the prayers and the "the wailing shells" is the choir. These religious images --- passing bells, orisons, and choirs --- presented in such "hasty" funeral somehow perversely emphasize, not the sacedness, but the meaninglessness of their death. In the battlefield, the religious rituals are "mockeries", and no one will actually mourn for them but their families. The young soldiers' patriotism certainly will not lead them to a glamorous and diginified ending.
In the second stanza, the setting is switched back to the "sad shires", where the loved ones mourn. The mood seems to become more depressing and sentimental. The artifacts of the funeral, the candles, palls, and flowers, around coffins, are symbolic of the pain and sadness of the mourners. The glimmer in the dead person's eyes becomes the true good-byes. In the last line, the scene of the dusk falling in a way represents the futility of war. With the "drawing-down of the blind" marking the coming of the dark night, the poem quietly ends.
This poem was written during the World War I, where more than nine million soldiers and civilians died, including Owen himself. Ironically, this poem became an elegy for the poet himself and those "doomed youth", who could not see the reality of war as he did --- they marched to the battlefield in World War II, with the same patriotism and ignorance.
Henry Zhu English 10 2007-5-31 Block:F
Appendix:
Anthem for Doomed Youth
BY WILFRED OWEN
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
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