“Futility” by Wilfred Owen: A Critical Analysis

Introduction: “Futility” by Wilfred Owen

“Futility” by Wilfred Owen first appeared in 1918 in The Nation, and was later included in his posthumous 1920 collection Poems edited by Siegfried Sassoon. The poem captures the tragic irony of a soldier’s death through the gentle yet devastating image of sunlight—once a giver of life, now powerless to awaken the dead. It contrasts the nurturing force of nature with the destructiveness of war. The main ideas revolve around the fragility of life, the senselessness of war, and the existential doubt it breeds. Owen uses natural imagery, such as “the kind old sun,” to question the very purpose of life and creation when confronted with death: “Was it for this the clay grew tall?” The poem’s enduring popularity lies in its poignant emotional restraint and philosophical depth, encapsulated in the final cry of despair: “O what made fatuous sunbeams toil / To break earth’s sleep at all?” Through this, Owen articulates a universal sense of loss and disillusionment that transcends the battlefield.

Text: “Futility” by Wilfred Owen

Annotations: “Futility” by Wilfred Owen

Line from Poem	Simple Meaning	Literary Devices
Move him into the sun—	Move the dead soldier’s body into the sunlight.	Imperative voice, imagery ☀️
Gently its touch awoke him once,	The sun used to wake him gently when he was alive.	Personification, soft tone 🤲
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.	The sun reminded him of the peaceful countryside and growing crops.	Alliteration, pastoral imagery 🌾
Always it woke him, even in France,	Even during the war in France, sunlight woke him daily.	Contrast (home vs war), irony 🪖🌞
Until this morning and this snow.	But today, in the cold snow, the sun can’t wake him.	Seasonal contrast, finality ❄️
If anything might rouse him now	If anything could bring him back to life now…	Conditional phrase, emotional tension ⚡
The kind old sun will know.	…it would be the kind sun that always brought life.	Personification, gentle hope 🌤️
Think how it wakes the seeds—	The sun gives life to seeds and makes them grow.	Natural metaphor for life 🌱
Woke once the clays of a cold star.	It once gave life to the Earth, formed from lifeless clay.	Cosmic metaphor, creation myth 🌌
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides	These human limbs, created with such care…	Emotive tone, tragic reflection 💔
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?	…are still warm and full of life, yet unmoving.	Rhetorical question, irony ❓
Was it for this the clay grew tall?	Was life made for this meaningless death?	Biblical allusion (clay = humans), existentialism 🧱
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil	Why did the sun foolishly work to bring life…	Oxymoron, futility theme 🌞❌
To break earth’s sleep at all?	…if life ends in pointless death like this?	Rhetorical question, cosmic despair 🌍❓

Literary And Poetic Devices: “Futility” by Wilfred Owen

Literary Device	Example from Poem	Detailed Explanation
Alliteration	“fields half-sown”	The repetition of the “s” sound emphasizes the incomplete state of the fields, mirroring the soldier’s unfinished life and the futility of his death.
Allusion	“the clays of a cold star”	Refers to the biblical creation story where humans are formed from clay, suggesting the soldier’s body as a product of divine creation, now lifeless, questioning the purpose of creation.
Apostrophe	“O what made fatuous sunbeams toil”	The speaker addresses the sun directly, though it cannot respond, expressing despair and questioning the purpose of life and creation.
Assonance	“sun / once”	The repetition of the “u” sound in these words creates a soft, mournful tone, reinforcing the gentle yet futile hope in the sun’s power to revive.
Caesura	“Until this morning and this snow.”	The pause after “morning” emphasizes the finality of the soldier’s death, breaking the rhythm to highlight the shift from life to death.
Consonance	“whispering of fields”	The repetition of the “f” sound creates a soft, whispering effect, evoking the gentle memory of home and the soldier’s past life.
Enjambment	“Move him into the sun— / Gently its touch awoke him once”	The thought carries over to the next line without punctuation, mimicking the flow of hope that the sun might revive the soldier, only to be dashed.
Hyperbole	“The kind old sun will know”	Exaggerates the sun’s wisdom or power, personifying it as a sentient force capable of deciding the soldier’s fate, highlighting the speaker’s desperate hope.
Imagery	“whispering of fields half-sown”	Vividly depicts the rural, pastoral life of the soldier’s past, contrasting with the harsh reality of war and death, evoking nostalgia and loss.
Irony	“The kind old sun will know”	It is ironic that the sun, a life-giving force, is powerless to revive the soldier, underscoring the futility of relying on natural forces in the face of war’s destruction.
Juxtaposition	“this morning and this snow”	Contrasts the warmth of morning (life) with snow (cold, death), emphasizing the soldier’s transition from life to death in a stark, natural setting.
Metaphor	“the clays of a cold star”	Compares the soldier’s body to clay formed on Earth (a “cold star”), suggesting both creation and lifelessness, questioning the purpose of human existence.
Mood	Entire poem	The mood is somber and despairing, created through imagery of death, snow, and futile hope, reflecting the speaker’s grief and questioning of life’s purpose.
Oxymoron	“fatuous sunbeams”	Combines “fatuous” (foolish) with “sunbeams” (life-giving), suggesting the sun’s efforts to bring life are ultimately meaningless in the face of death.
Personification	“Gently its touch awoke him once”	Attributes human-like qualities to the sun, suggesting it has the gentle, caring ability to awaken, which contrasts with its current failure to revive the soldier.
Question (Rhetorical)	“Was it for this the clay grew tall?”	Asks a question not meant to be answered, emphasizing the speaker’s anguish over the seemingly pointless creation of life that ends in death.
Repetition	“woke”	Repeated in “woke him” and “woke once the clays,” emphasizing the sun’s past success in giving life, contrasting with its present failure.
Symbolism	“the sun”	Represents life, hope, and creation, but its inability to revive the soldier symbolizes the futility of natural forces against the devastation of war.
Tone	Entire poem	The tone is mournful and questioning, as the speaker grapples with the soldier’s death and the broader futility of life and creation in the context of war.
Understatement	“If anything might rouse him now”	Downplays the slim chance of revival, subtly conveying the speaker’s resignation to the soldier’s death while clinging to faint hope.

Themes: “Futility” by Wilfred Owen

☀️ The Power and Limitations of Nature: In “Futility” by Wilfred Owen, the theme of nature’s dual role as a life-giving force, yet one constrained by its inability to reverse death, emerges through a poignant interplay of hope and despair, which the speaker articulates by imploring, “Move him into the sun— / Gently its touch awoke him once,” thereby evoking a time when the sun’s warmth stirred the soldier’s vitality, reminiscent of “fields half-sown” in his pastoral past. Personified as a “kind old” entity, the sun, which “woke once the clays of a cold star,” is imbued with a nurturing agency that historically catalyzed life, yet, as the soldier lies unresponsive—“Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides / Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?”—Owen underscores nature’s limitations, for even the sun, a symbol of creation, cannot overcome the finality of death. This juxtaposition, culminating in the anguished query, “O what made fatuous sunbeams toil / To break earth’s sleep at all?” reveals a profound disillusionment, wherein the speaker, confronting war’s devastation, questions the efficacy of nature’s once-mighty power, which now appears futile against the backdrop of mortality.

💔 The Tragedy of War: In “Futility” by Wilfred Owen, the tragic cost of war, which extinguishes life and potential with merciless finality, is vividly portrayed through the speaker’s desperate plea to “Move him into the sun,” a command that, set against the stark imagery of “this morning and this snow,” underscores the soldier’s abrupt transition from the warmth of life to the cold permanence of death. The soldier, whose past is tenderly recalled through “whispering of fields half-sown,” embodies unfulfilled dreams shattered by conflict, a loss that Owen amplifies through the rhetorical question, “Was it for this the clay grew tall?”—a lament that interrogates the purpose of human existence when war so callously destroys it. By juxtaposing the soldier’s “still warm” body with his unresponsiveness, Owen crafts a complex critique of war’s senseless destruction, wherein the poem, steeped in the grim reality of the battlefield, mourns not only the individual but also the broader human potential obliterated by violence, thus rendering the tragedy both personal and universal.

❓ Questioning Creation and Purpose: In “Futility” by Wilfred Owen, the theme of existential questioning, which probes the purpose of creation in the face of meaningless death, surfaces as the speaker, grappling with the soldier’s demise, reflects on the biblical allusion to “the clays of a cold star,” a phrase that evokes humanity’s divine origin while simultaneously challenging its value when life is so easily extinguished. The query, “Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides / Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?” encapsulates the speaker’s anguish, as he wonders why such intricate creation—limbs painstakingly formed—culminates in stillness, a sentiment intensified by the closing lament, “O what made fatuous sunbeams toil / To break earth’s sleep at all?” Through this complex interrogation, Owen, weaving together the soldier’s physicality with metaphysical concerns, suggests that war’s devastation renders creation itself absurd, for if life, so meticulously crafted, ends in futility, the speaker is left to ponder whether the act of creation, driven by “fatuous sunbeams,” holds any enduring purpose.

😔 Despair and Hopelessness: In “Futility” by Wilfred Owen, a pervasive sense of despair and hopelessness, which permeates the speaker’s confrontation with mortality, emerges through the initial, fleeting hope expressed in “Move him into the sun— / Gently its touch awoke him once,” a plea that, juxtaposed with the chilling reality of “this morning and this snow,” reveals the futility of expecting revival. The sun, personified as “kind old” and once capable of awakening life, fails to stir the soldier, prompting the speaker’s resigned question, “If anything might rouse him now / The kind old sun will know,” which subtly conveys a waning faith in natural forces. This despair deepens in the poem’s climax, where the speaker, reflecting on the soldier’s lifeless form, asks, “Was it for this the clay grew tall?”—a rhetorical cry that, coupled with the denunciation of “fatuous sunbeams,” underscores a profound hopelessness, wherein Owen, through intricate layers of grief and disillusionment, portrays war as a force that not only claims lives but also extinguishes the hope that life’s creation might hold meaning.

Literary Theories and “Futility” by Wilfred Owen

Literary Theory	Application to “Futility”
1. Formalism 📜	Focuses on the language, structure, and literary devices in the poem. The gentle tone (“Gently its touch awoke him once”) contrasts with the harsh theme of death. The use of personification of the sun and rhetorical questions like “Was it for this the clay grew tall?” reinforce the theme of futility.
2. Historical/Biographical 🪖	Wilfred Owen wrote this during WWI, where he served as a soldier. The line “Always it woke him, even in France” refers to the battlefields of war, contrasting with the peace of “fields half-sown.” The poem reflects Owen’s first-hand trauma and disillusionment with war.
3. Existentialism 🌀	Examines the meaning of life and death, highlighting human suffering and absurdity. The poem questions the purpose of creation: “Was it for this the clay grew tall?” and “O what made fatuous sunbeams toil?” suggesting life may be inherently meaningless in the face of war.
4. Ecocriticism 🌱	Explores the relationship between nature and humanity. The poem presents the sun as a nurturing force: “Think how it wakes the seeds”, yet questions its value when life is destroyed: “To break earth’s sleep at all?” It critiques how human violence disrupts the natural order.

Critical Questions about “Futility” by Wilfred Owen

Literary Works Similar to “Futility” by Wilfred Owen

• “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen 🕯️
  Like “Futility”, this poem mourns the waste of young lives in war, replacing traditional mourning rituals with the brutality of the battlefield. Both use irony and funeral imagery to expose the dehumanizing effects of WWI.
• “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen ☠️
  This poem critiques the false glorification of war, echoing Futility’s existential questioning. Both poems use graphic imagery and rhetorical questions to condemn war propaganda and highlight the pointlessness of death in combat.
• “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke 🇬🇧⚰️
  Though more patriotic in tone, this poem shares Futility’s reflection on death and the homeland. It contrasts sharply, however, in viewing death as noble, while Owen sees it as senseless and tragic—highlighting the ideological divide in WWI poetry.
• “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae 🌺
  This iconic WWI poem also focuses on the death of soldiers and nature’s response. While it has a more hopeful tone than Futility, both poems use natural imagery (fields, flowers, sun) to explore life after loss and the memory of the fallen.
• “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas 🔥
  Although not a war poem, it similarly deals with death and resistance. Like Owen, Thomas questions the inevitability of death, using powerful emotional appeals. Both poems are lyrical meditations on the fragility of life.

Representative Quotations of “Futility” by Wilfred Owen

	Quotation	Context	Theoretical Perspective
☀️	“Move him into the sun—”	This opening line, which introduces the speaker’s desperate plea to place a dead soldier in the sunlight, sets the tone for the poem’s exploration of hope and futility, as the speaker clings to the possibility that the sun, a life-giving force, might revive the fallen soldier.	New Criticism: From a New Critical perspective, which emphasizes close reading of the text’s formal elements, the imperative “Move him” and the dash create a sense of urgency and hesitation, reflecting the tension between hope and despair, while the sun’s symbolic role as a life-giver is immediately established, setting up the poem’s central irony that nature cannot undo death.
🌾	“Gently its touch awoke him once”	Following the command to move the soldier, this line recalls the sun’s past ability to awaken the soldier, evoking memories of his life before war, particularly in a rural setting.	Romanticism: Through a Romantic lens, which valorizes nature’s sublime power, this line portrays the sun as a gentle, almost divine force that once harmonized with the soldier’s vitality, yet the poem’s shift to futility critiques Romantic ideals by highlighting nature’s failure to restore life in the face of war’s destruction.
🌄	“At home, whispering of fields half-sown”	This line, part of the first stanza, reflects the soldier’s past life in a pastoral setting, where the sun’s warmth was associated with growth and incomplete agricultural tasks, contrasting with his current lifeless state.	Ecocriticism: An ecocritical perspective, which examines the relationship between literature and the environment, interprets this line as a nostalgic invocation of a harmonious human-nature connection, disrupted by war, with “fields half-sown” symbolizing unfulfilled potential and the environmental cost of conflict.
❄️	“Until this morning and this snow”	Appearing in the first stanza, this line marks the moment of the soldier’s death, with the snow symbolizing cold finality and contrasting with the sun’s warmth, emphasizing the futility of the speaker’s hope.	Formalism: From a formalist perspective, which focuses on structure and language, the juxtaposition of “morning” (hope) and “snow” (death) creates a stark contrast, reinforced by the caesura after “morning,” which pauses the rhythm to underscore the irreversible shift from life to death.
🌞	“The kind old sun will know”	Concluding the first stanza, this line personifies the sun as a wise, benevolent force, expressing the speaker’s faint hope that it might have the power to revive the soldier, despite the reality of death.	Personification Analysis: Through the lens of personification as a rhetorical device, this line anthropomorphizes the sun, endowing it with human-like wisdom and care, which amplifies the tragic irony when the sun, despite its “kind” nature, fails to act, highlighting the limits of natural agency in the face of mortality.
🌱	“Think how it wakes the seeds—”	Opening the second stanza, this line shifts to a broader reflection on the sun’s role in fostering life, urging the reader to consider its power to stimulate growth in nature, in contrast to its current ineffectiveness.	Structuralism: From a structuralist perspective, which examines underlying patterns, this line establishes a binary opposition between life (seeds waking) and death (the soldier’s stillness), with the dash signaling a contemplative pause that invites reflection on the universal cycle disrupted by war.
🪨	“Woke once the clays of a cold star”	Also in the second stanza, this line alludes to the biblical creation of humanity from clay, suggesting the soldier’s body as a product of divine or natural creation, now lifeless.	Mythological Criticism: Through a mythological lens, which explores archetypal narratives, this line invokes the creation myth, positioning the soldier as a modern Adam whose “clay” fails to rise, thus questioning the divine or natural purpose of creation in a world marred by war’s futility.
💪	“Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides / Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?”	This rhetorical question in the second stanza reflects on the soldier’s once-vital body, now unresponsive, emphasizing the tragedy of a life meticulously formed yet extinguished.	Existentialism: An existentialist perspective, which grapples with meaning and absurdity, interprets this line as a lament over the purposelessness of human existence, where the “dear-achieved” body, crafted with care, lies inert, prompting the speaker to question the value of life in a war-torn world.
❓	“Was it for this the clay grew tall?”	This poignant question in the second stanza challenges the purpose of human creation, wondering if life’s efforts culminate only in death, particularly in the context of war.	Deconstruction: From a deconstructionist perspective, which questions fixed meanings, this line destabilizes the notion of purposeful creation, as the phrase “grew tall” implies growth and aspiration, yet its rhetorical pairing with “for this” (death) reveals an inherent contradiction, undermining teleological assumptions about life.
😔	“O what made fatuous sunbeams toil / To break earth’s sleep at all?”	The poem’s closing lines express despair, questioning why the sun’s efforts to foster life were undertaken if death is inevitable, encapsulating the poem’s theme of futility.	Psychoanalytic Criticism: Through a psychoanalytic lens, which explores unconscious motivations, this line reflects the speaker’s projection of despair onto the sun, with “fatuous sunbeams” symbolizing a futile life force, revealing a subconscious grappling with the trauma of war and the absurdity of existence in the face of mortality.

Suggested Readings: “Futility” by Wilfred Owen

1. Owen, Wilfred, and Lois Morrison. Futility. Lois Morrison, 1992.
2. NORGATE, PAUL. “Soldiers’ Dreams: Popular Rhetoric and the War Poetry of Wilfred Owen.” Critical Survey, vol. 2, no. 2, 1990, pp. 208–15. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41555530. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
3. Kerr, Douglas. “Brothers in Arms: Family Language in Wilfred Owen.” The Review of English Studies, vol. 43, no. 172, 1992, pp. 518–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/518731. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
4. Kerr, Douglas. “Brothers in Arms: Family Language in Wilfred Owen.” The Review of English Studies, vol. 43, no. 172, 1992, pp. 518–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/518731. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
5. Norgate, Paul. “Wilfred Owen and the Soldier Poets.” The Review of English Studies, vol. 40, no. 160, 1989, pp. 516–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/517098. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.