Starter:
fatuous – foolish, silly
Task One:
A soldier moves his comrade into the light and warmth of the Sun in hope of him ‘waking up’. It used to wake him every day in World War One era France. However, the comrade is dead so he cannot wake up this time. The Sun is still able to shine on the plants and ‘wake’ them. Yet it cannot wake this fallen comrade.
Task Two:
Personification has been used in the poem to enhance meaning by providing more description without being too literal. An example being ‘The kind old Sun will know’. The author presents this by labelling the Sun as ‘kind’. However, it is only considered ‘kind’ as it provides warmth and light for our planet. Furthermore, the author also says that the ‘old Sun will know’. As we know, the Sun has existed long before we have so it is being described as some sort of all-knowing entity.
Task Three:
I think that the author has chosen to present nature and death alongside each other because they are both things that cannot exist without one another. Death is something that cannot be prevented and it is a part of nature. Nature is something that allows all life to live and without death, the idea of them both would not exist.
Task Four:
The poet presents death in Futility by using personification and metaphors to describe the setting and plot. In the first stanza, the poem says ‘Move him into the Sun’ to describe a soldier moving his fallen into the light and warmth of the Sun to wake him. Later in the stanza, it says ‘At home, whispering of fields half-sown’. This quotation is a metaphor and it develops on the idea that even the Sun cannot save this soldier whose life has been taken too soon, hence the ‘half-sown’. This was a common case in the First World War; it was around the time in which the poem was written.
Personification is used in the poem as shown in the second stanza; ‘O what made fatuous sunbeams toil to break earth’s sleep at all?’. In this quotation, the poet personifies both the Earth and the Sun. He describes the Sun as ‘fatuous’ which is a synonym for the word foolish. Furthermore, he describes the Earth as though it were able to sleep as a person would. From this, I can infer that the something has caused the Sun to wake the Earth from its slumber. This something could be the Sun rising as usual but due to the death of the soldier, it makes that morning seem more sombre.
React!