QuoteProject
Futility Move him into the sun - Gently its touch awoke him once, At home, whispering of fields unsown. 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. Think how it wakes the seeds, - Woke, once, the clays of a cold star. Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides, Full-nerved -still warm -too hard to stir? Was it for this the clay grew tall? -O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth's sleep at all?
Wilfred Owen
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on the futility of life and the inevitability of death, questioning the purpose of existence.

In this poignant poem by Wilfred Owen, the speaker contemplates the contrast between life and death, particularly focusing on the sun's role in awakening growth and life. The speaker expresses a deep sense of futility, questioning the purpose of life's efforts when faced with the permanence of death, evoking a strong emotional response to the loss of vitality in the face of mortality.

Themes

FutilityLifeDeathPurposeSunMortality

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about the meaning of life and death during a philosophy class.

More from Wilfred Owen

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-- My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
Wilfred OwenRead
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
Wilfred OwenRead
As bronze may be much beautified by lying in the dark damp soil, so men who fade in dust of warfare fade fairer, and sorrow blooms their soul.
Wilfred OwenRead
We were marooned in a frozen desert. There was not a sign of life on the horizon and a thousand signs of death... The marvel is we did not all die of cold.
Wilfred OwenRead
The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
Wilfred OwenRead
Winter Song The browns, the olives, and the yellows died, And were swept up to heaven; where they glowed Each dawn and set of sun till Christmastide, And when the land lay pale for them, pale-snowed, Fell back, and down the snow-drifts flamed and flowed. From off your face, into the winds of winter, The sun-brown and the summer-gold are blowing; But they shall gleam with spiritual glinter, When paler beauty on your brows falls snowing, And through those snows my looks shall be soft-going.
Wilfred OwenRead

Similar quotes

You imagine the carefully pruned, shaped thing that is presented to you is truth. That is just what it isn't. The truth is improbable, the truth is fantastic; it's in what you think is a distorting mirror that you see the truth.
Jean RhysRead
The seventh day of creation is the most eloquent and insightful as to the nature of God. From a literary perspective, the Sabbath forms the pinnacle of the story. Like the dramatic kiss of a soldier returning from war, this is the moment we’re not meant to miss. In choosing rest as the grand finale, God reveals himself as one driven by neither anxiety nor fear but one who finds gladness in both the work of creation and the creation of work.
Margaret FeinbergRead
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Thomas PaineRead
What is truly profound is thought to be stupid and trivial, or worse, boring, while what is actually stupid and trivial is thought to be profound. That is what it means to fly upside down.
Dallas WillardRead
We are ever dying to one world and being born into another.
Henry David ThoreauRead
The notion of ambiguity must not be confused with that of absurdity. To declare that existence is absurd is to deny that it can ever be given a meaning; to say that it is ambiguous is to assert that its meaning is never fixed, that it must be constantly won. Absurdity challenges every ethics; but also the finished rationalization of the real would leave no room for ethics; it is because man's condition is ambiguous that he seeks, through failure and outrageousness, to save his existence.
Simone De BeauvoirRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.