Anthem for doomed youth is a sonnet poem split into two stanza's. the first a octet and second a sestet. Each stanza has a different focus in the octet imagery of a battle field is presented "riffles rapid rattle" and in contrast the sestet explores the home front " pallor of girls brows shall be there pall". the focus may change in stanza but the theme explored throughout the poem is death and sacrifice.
"what passing bells for these who die as cattle?" the use of rhetorical questioning at the start of each stanza ultimately engages the reader in Owens poem. In this question a simile of men given a death and goodbye as brutal as a cows in a abeture. "what passing bells" obviously none for the men at war Owen wants his audience how miss treated the men are at war. Also how disrespectful and sacrilegious the conditions of war are. .
Instead of "passing bells" the men will be dismissed with "only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle" the use of alliteration, personification and onomatopoeia combined reveals the unforgiving sounds and use of the machines and bullets. Men who are bread to "die as cattle" by the "monstrous anger" of the guns as they mow men down on the battle field. What need is there of bells when men have this. the repetition of "only" is used to emphasise this. .
Owen use of onomatopoeia and personification in "wailing shells" and "bugles calling" replace the choirs and prayers from the traditional funeral church ceremony that the boys are robbed of. Owen contrasts the brutal and bitter conditions of war to the peaceful church service using extreme irony. he wants the readers to be pissed off and very annoyed with lack of respect war brings to death.
Similarly this idea continues throughout the poem and becomes a extended metaphor. A religious church funeral being said to be a violent , spiritless death boys suffer in the battle front. Again shocking the reader to be reminded of the usual respect of death normally compared to the lack of responsibility felt during the war time.