Arms And The Boy Analysis

Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade
How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash;
And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.

Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads
Which long to muzzle in the hearts of lads.
Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth,
Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.

For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple.
There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;
And God will grow no talons at his heels,
Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.

.: :.

I think that the poem is to take away the glorious nationalistic aspect of war and show the reality, that the young "boys" had to face, which was loss of innocence, witnessing violent, bloody deaths of fellow soldiers and also their own physical and pyschological pain. Owen is showing the readers that the soldiers were too young to be fighting this war and witnessing such horrors by saying "let the boy try along this bayonet-blade" and "lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet heads". No "boy" should be left responsible for these weapons, let alone in control of it so they can murder other soldiers.

| Posted on 2009-11-18 | by a guest

.: :.

I think the poem is about boys who are barely men yet are forced to go to war and want to go when realy they dont anderstand how horrable war is, wepons atached to there hands make them grown up and deadly killers when hey realy should be at home living there lives -eating apples- and enjoying there life as they are not made to die.

| Posted on 2009-10-16 | by a guest

.: :.

The title is actually a take off a famous play titled "Arms and the Man". By changing Man to Boy, Owen stresses on the fact that we are sending young boys to war, boys who should be playing, not killing people, as shown in the last stanza in which Owen describes how boys were never meant to kill.

| Posted on 2009-08-23 | by a guest

.: :.

The title is suggestive of what the boy has been made a part of - the weapon used by the national establishment which was the front line. The 'Arms' could be alternativly implicating weaponary as a newly implanted limb of the child. Therefore both weapon and boy seem functional to one another where the bullet 'longs to muzzle in the heart of lads' and which has manipulated the boy in being 'keen with the hunger of blood'.

| Posted on 2009-06-07 | by a guest

.: :.

"God will grow no talons at his heel"
Also have a reference to the devil - "talons"
From the same stanza "claws" "antlers"
The weapons are evil - the work of the devil

| Posted on 2009-05-18 | by a guest

.: :.

The title is intreguing as it is unusual for the weapon to be written BEFORE the human, suggesting that the weapons are manipulating the boy. 'Arms' is also a technical term and is a juxtaposition as a young boy would usually say 'guns', suggesting they have been forced to grow up too quickly. There are many biblical and satanic references in the poem, for example "for his teeth seem for laughing round an apple", with the use of 'apple' Owen could possibly be referring to the forbidden fruit as a symbol of life. In comparison to "Anthem for Doomed Youth" the boys are more accepting of the guns in "Arms and the Boy", they seem to embrace it, almost as if they have been indoctrinated. :D Year 12 english lit student

| Posted on 2009-05-13 | by a guest

.: :.

Arms and the Boy is short, regular versed poem, reflecting Humans which are referred to the soldiers at war to the Mechanical (the machinery used) It is trying to get across the fact that the Guns have a power over the young boys, 'How cold steel is, keen with the hunger of blood.' It is comparing pleasure to destruction in the 2nd stanza giving it a different type of tone and effect.

| Posted on 2009-05-04 | by a guest

.: :.

The poem indicates innocence and the pity that can be evoked. the word 'arms' is technical. the word 'gun' is childlike, which explain why owen choses the first, to contrast with the boy.
owen himself was an officer, so would have felt immense guilt for any young men who were under his care if harm came to them. owen feels the necessity to witness and tell. This idea parallels with many if not all of his poems, including disabled and mental cases.

| Posted on 2009-04-22 | by a guest

.: :.

What this poem is saying is really quite simple. As with the rest of his poems, Owen is protesting against the waste of youth - how the war forced boys to become men before their time. How the war initiated a stream of youths to lie about their ages and sign up to the army for the 'glory' of the battle. The last stanza alludes evil and how god is not judging the young that have sacrificed themselves for this 'glory' - indicating that it is not they that are evil, but those who command them, those who started and continued the war.

| Posted on 2009-01-14 | by a guest

.: :.

I think 'Arms and the Boy' is a juxtapose- specifically chosen because they contrast- would it be right seeing a young boy with a weapon?! Or maybe that arms make men (soldiers) feel like boys; they just want to go home and hide- not fight and suffer.

| Posted on 2008-09-24 | by a guest

.: :.

I think 'Arms and the Boy' is a juxtapose- specifically chosen because they contrast- would it be right seeing a young boy with a weapon?! Or maybe that arms make men (soldiers) feel like boys; they just want to go home and hide- not fight and suffer.

| Posted on 2008-09-24 | by a guest

.: :.

or perhaps arms mean weapons so in the tittle "arms and the boy" wilfred owen is stating the two major issues in his peom, the weapons and their addictive evil and the coruption of the innocent "boy"

| Posted on 2008-04-06 | by a guest

.: :.

You can see Wilfred Owen and many other great poets moving and reading their own poems in my virtual movies at my poetrylad Dailymotion channel ..Heres the x Regards
Jim Clark aka poetrylad at Dailymotion

| Posted on 2008-03-17 | by a guest

.: Arms and the Boy :.

This poem's underlying message is really quite simple. Owen, being a soldier, has contemplated the meaninglessness of war, but this particular poem seems to tackle the issue of humans having possession of weapons we have created. It appears that Owen doesn't believe that humans should not have weapons that god did not provide for us. The last quatrain solidifies this stating,"his teeth seem for laughing" and "there lurk no claws behind his fingers, and GOD will grow no talons at his heels or antlers through the thickness of his curls". The title alone makes a statement. "Arms and the boy", the "boy" is an alliteration to mankind's youth as a species. Why would Owen use the word "arms" not "weapons"? Perhaps word association of "arms" ties in to man's intimacy with weapons as expressed in the second quatrain. Overall Owen seems to be asking one very important question: Is man responsible enough to handle the weapons we have created? The fact that this poem was written before the "Atomic Age" shows Owen's surprising insight into events that were unfolding at the time and even more amazingly, to events that have yet to happen.

| Posted on 2007-04-04 | by a guest