In both the falling leaves and futility, there is an underlying theme of death. The theme runs its course through each poem. For example in the “The falling leaves”, “brown leaves dropping from their tree” is used as a metaphor for the soldiers dying. The metaphor is very important as it gives a sense of the time frame it was written in. During Autumn, trees shed their leaves. The tree is supposed to represent Britain and gives a portrayal of the amount of deaths and the affects of the warfare. The poem was written by Margaret Postgate Cole, this is important as it gives a view point of war but not on the battlefields as this wouldn’t have been possible in the 1940s. Margaret Postgate Cole was a pacifist and believe that this war was unnecessary.  This is similar to “Futility” which is a poem written based upon being in the front line of war. The poem is about trying to revive a dead soldier. For example “if anything might rouse him now” is used by Wilfred Owen to suggest that there is a chance the soldier might be alive, however the reader is aware the the person being carried is dead. The poem states that the sun might not “rouse” the corpse, this suggests that the the sun which was responsible for bringing life had abandoned humanity because of war.

 

 

The extent of war being an attrocity is explored during the falling leaves. As i previously stated, the leaves are used to represent the dying soldiers, but instead of the deaths being seen as individuals. The soldiers being grouped as one creates an absence of personality. This theme is quite popular in warfare, soldiers were often buried in long graves, containing multiple corpses. This is also present in Futility where the corpse is not referred to with a name however just words such as him, creating an absence of personality. This is quite powerful as objects aren’t referred to with names but instead terms such as it. This creates a feeling of absence of life