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 good-byes. 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. !
– An Anthem for Doomed Youth
Wilfred Owen
If there were reason for these miseries,
Then into limits could I bind my woes:
When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o’erflow?
If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,
Threat’ning the welkin with his big-swoll’n face?
And wilt thou have a reason for this coil?
I am the sea; hark how her sighs doth blow!
She is the weeping welkin, I the earth:
Then must my sea be moved with her sighs;
Then must my earth with her continual tears
Become a deluge, overflow’d and drown’d:
For why my bowels cannot hide her woes,
But like a drunkard must I vomit them.
Then give me leave, for losers will have leave
To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues.
– Act 3 scene 1 Titus Andronicus
Shakespeare
Emotion – Devastation
Assonance, Monosyllabic lines, degradation in word beat/ pattern, elaborate punctuation, Repetition, Seasura, Antithesis and personification.
Monosyllabic line: If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,
This quote is a monosyllabic line that contains 11 syllables which shows that Titus Andronicus is devastated as when spoken the line is a very powerful and angry line. However the root of Titus’s anger is devastation, Shakespeare uses the monosyllabic line to give the actors a clue as to what Titus is feeling.
React!