As an aid to understanding fatalism in anthem for doomed youth by English World War One poet Wilfred Owen, the poem's title gives a great clue. It is also paradoxical. The word 'doomed' suggests the poems conclusion is a foregone conclusion right from the start, rather like the fate of the boy soldiers themselves. The word implies that the futures of the boys have been pre-ordained by others and that those 'others' must therefore be in a position of power.

Owen then goes on to hint at the fate that lies in store for the young soldiers in the first line of the sonnet. He uses the imagery of the abattoir in contrasting the flower of England's youth with that of cattle about to die.

On continuing to read the poem further, readers will guess that the sort of cattle Owen has in mind are not wild cattle grazing open land until they drop from old age or a natural illness, but domesticated animals - whose only 'raison d'etre' is for slaughter to provide meat for more powerful beings to enjoy.

A sad note indeed - and so it is with the boy soldiers, Owen seems to say. For the excited youthful innocence of a teenager who thinks he is entering a glorious and well-planned battle for the protection of his home country and loved ones will be used and sacrificed without the lad having any say in the matter.

The paradox in the title now becomes apparent as, although the tone of the poem is anything but rousing, Owen gives the piece the title of 'Anthem.' The use of this word is bittersweet and ironic, as an anthem usually celebrates all that is great, laudable and glorious about a country in terms of its patriotism and love of homeland.

Yet the tone of this poem is not encouraging and motivational - rather it has an air of fatalism and despondency about it, seeming to acquire a more and more grieving atmosphere as it progresses, as slowly as a hearse, towards an end bedecked with funereal images such as 'bugles' or 'candles' or 'pall'.

Responsibility for the guaranteed sacrifice of so many young lives is not pointed out with as sharp a finger in this poem by Owen as it is in others. Instead, 'others' with the power of sentencing docile trusting youth to be sacrificed on an altar of land issues are merely alluded to.

Wartime was a highly volatile period in which to risk such concepts as Fate or Cause. These ideas might have become confused (either deliberately or accidentally) with unpatriotic publicity, morale-bashing - or even worse from the government's point of view

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