"Futility" is a poem by Wilfred Owen, a British soldier during World War I. Written in 1918, the poem elegizes an unnamed soldier lying dead in the snow in France. This image resonates with the poem's speaker, causing him or her to reassess life's value, given death's inevitability. Unlike Owen's other poems, which contain violent bodily imagery, this poem features a calmer, more resigned tone, underlining the speaker's act of mourning the "futility" of life in the face of death.
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The Full Text of “Futility”
1Move him into the sun—
2Gently its touch awoke him once,
3At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
4Always it woke him, even in France,
5Until this morning and this snow.
6If anything might rouse him now
7The kind old sun will know.
8Think how it wakes the seeds—
9Woke once the clays of a cold star.
10Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides
11Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
12Was it for this the clay grew tall?
13—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
14To break earth's sleep at all?
The Full Text of “Futility”
1Move him into the sun—
2Gently its touch awoke him once,
3At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
4Always it woke him, even in France,
5Until this morning and this snow.
6If anything might rouse him now
7The kind old sun will know.
8Think how it wakes the seeds—
9Woke once the clays of a cold star.
10Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides
11Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
12Was it for this the clay grew tall?
13—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
14To break earth's sleep at all?
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“Futility” Summary
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“Futility” Themes
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Life and Death
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Futility”
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Lines 1-3
Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown. -
Lines 4-7
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. -
Lines 8-9
Think how it wakes the seeds—
Woke once the clays of a cold star. -
Lines 10-12
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall? -
Lines 13-14
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?
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“Futility” Symbols
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The Sun
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“Futility” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Aporia
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Assonance
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Caesura
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Imagery
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Juxtaposition
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Personification
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Enjambment
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Metaphor
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Allusion
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“Futility” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Half-sown
- Rouse
- Seeds
- Clay
- Full-nerved
- Fatuous
- Toil
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Futility”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Futility” Speaker
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“Futility” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Futility”
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More “Futility” Resources
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External Resources
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"Futility" Reading (Audio) — The English actor Alex Jennings reads "Futility" aloud.
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Wilfred Owen's "Insensibility" — Although it focuses more on his other poem, "Insensibility," this article by the Poetry Foundation explicates Owen's larger poetic perspective on war.
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The Wilfred Owen Association — The Wilfred Owen Association is a British organization dedicated to promoting Owen's life and poetic work.
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Wilfred Owen's Biography and Works — The Academy of American Poets website, apart from being a premier resource for all things poetry, has information about Owen's biography and notable works.
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The Poetry of World War I — This article by the Poetry Foundation lists many of the great poems written about (and mostly during) World War I.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Wilfred Owen
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