Futility
Wilfred Owen
Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds—
Woke once the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?
A few words before reading the poem:
Wilfred Owen is a war poet and this poem "Futility" is an anti-war poem. As Owen joined the First World War, he had the bitter experiences of war. What we find in the poems of Owen is not the horror of war, but "The pity of war, the pity war distilled."(Strange Meeting) . To him war is an 'organized butchery of boys' and his poems are the protest against the dehumanizing ugliness of war, against the sinful ambition of the war mongers and the politicians.
The background of the poem "Futility" is concerned with the war. A soldier is shot dead by the enemies. The fellow-soldiers take the dead body in the bright Sun shine. Their expectation is that the Sun must revive their friend. In such a situation the poem begins.
Summary :
One of the fellow soldiers says others to move the dead body of the war victim into the sun. He says that the Sun performs the duty of waking and its gentle touch used to awake the soldier during all past days. When the soldier was at his native place and did his cultivation, the Sun whispered to him at dawn to remind him that the field is not sown. Not only at home , even in the battle field in France the Sun has awoken the soldier in this snowy morning also. Only the Sun knows the trick of rousing a person . If anybody can rouse/wake the dead soldier, it is the kind old Sun, nobody else.
Now the poet-soldier starts eulogizing the waking power of the Sun. One must think how the Sun wakes the seeds and makes plants. It can never be denied that it is the Sun which once woke the soil of this cold Earth. It means that the Sun gradually made the clay of the Earth warm through crores of years and made the suitable environment to create life in this world. The condition of the soldier is not so critical like the cold clay of the barren earth. Each limb of the dead soldier is build with proper care (dear-achieved),the nerves of both sides of the body is still full of consciousness and the body is still warm. Will it be so hard that the Sun will not be able to stir (revive) the lifeless soldier. Not a singe ray of hope is dawned in the speaker's mind. Naturally he questions the Sun. Was the body of the soldier built and grown tall for this purpose. if it be destroyed so easily by the war-mongers.If it be so, the Sun is proved fool.The toil of the sun/sunbeams in creating life in this Earth (breaking Earth's sleep)is fruitless.Futility is in the action of the Sun.
Foot-notes: At home - the native pace of the dead soldier, France - battlefield in France, Clays - soil, Cold star - the Earth, To stir - to revive, Clay - the body of the dead soldier as it is made of clay as one basic element, Fatuous - useless/fool/futile.
