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;	5
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	10
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.
passing-bells — a bell wrung to announce that someone has died
orisons — prayers
save — except for
pall — a burial shroud
a drawing-down of blinds —Blinds (window shades) are usually drawn down when evening approaches for the privacy’s sake. However, they were also always lowered in the room of a person who has died. Often, a grieving family would keep the blinds drawn around the clock for the period of mourning after a death.