1. Futility Wilfred Owen

3. Futility (noun) 1.pointlessness – a lack of usefulness or effectiveness 2.pointless action - an action that has no use, purpose or effect

4. The story of the poem Written in 1918. About this time Owen categorised his poems, FUTILITY coming under the heading "Grief". The front line on a bright winter morning. A soldier has recently died though we don't know precisely how or when. Owen appears to have known him and something of his background. He ponders nature's power to create life, setting it against the futility of death. The problem Owen faces in Futility is how to reconcile the miracle of creation with the evil of death and waste. Owen wonders ‘what is the point?’…

17. Quotes + this shows… The sun is personified throughout the poem – select lines where this happens. (C)

18. Language analysis List the connotations of these words… (B) Gently Kind Warm Cold Sunbeam

19. Meaning and Structure (A) What does the final line of the poem suggest? The poem has three rhetorical questions at the end. Why? Why did Owen write this poem?

20. The poem makes us think about… Life – how it is created Nature – how the sun creates all life on earth Death – how it ultimately makes life futile