The Artillery Sonnet - Imagery, symbolism and themes

Imagery in Sonnet On Seeing a Piece of Our Heavy Artillery Brought into Action

Metaphor

Much of the extended metaphor which Owen creates in Sonnet is tied in very closely with the personification of the ‘Great Gun’, itself a metaphor for war.

towering towards Heaven: Owen is using ‘Heaven’ as a metaphor for God. The gun ‘towers’ in the sense that it strives to touch heaven, to become God-like. There is an echo here of the Old Testament account of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) when humanity, in its pride, tries to reach heaven
rehearse: a rehearsal is a run through for an important event such as a play or a speech. Here Owen is saying that the artillery fire sounds out year after year as if it is practising to become perfect
imprecations: the words the gun rehearses are curses and ‘blasting’ charms. These are a metaphor for the noise of war. The guns create a din but war itself blasts at life
Spend: Here Owen is making a play on words (a pun). Cartridges and shells, once they have been fired and released their ammunition, are said to be ‘spent’. Owen picks up this term and uses it in its other sense as in spending money
disburse: this is another word for spending. (A bursary is a grant of money and has the same root.) It doesn’t mean ‘disperse’ although it sounds like that word and the ‘gold’ is in fact spread out
gold in shape of flames: the gun burns money. Britain’s gold reserves would be spent on buying armaments which would ‘go up in flames’
our breath in storms: the gun is also there to ‘spend’ the lives of men. Their ‘breath’ is a metaphor for their life, the ‘storms’ stand for the war
the bosom of our prosperity: ‘the bosom’ represents the place of safety. Owen is using the term in the sense of being in ‘the bosom of one’s family’
when thy spell be cast: this is a metaphor for the whole horror of war which weapons such as the great gun create
cut thee from our soul: Owen here wants the future to be free of armaments and weapons of war. ‘Our soul’ is a metaphor for humankind.

Simile

Owen uses the simile, ‘Like a blasting charm’ l.4 to imagine how the spell or charm which war casts is blasted both audibly and physically. The gun’s deadly ‘charm’ / ‘malison’ is a metaphor for the death and destruction it has meted out.

Personification

Throughout The Artillery Sonnet Owen personifies the Great Gun. Owen never actually uses the definite or indefinite article (‘the’ or ‘a’) to define it but directly addresses it. The capitalisation of the words makes them into proper nouns, a name. Like a human this piece of artillery has an ‘arm’ l.1 and can ‘rehearse’. It has a human voice, capable of cursing by throwing its ‘imprecations’ l.4 at the enemy and of withering men with its ‘malison’ l.9. Owen instructs the gun to ‘reach’ l.5 and ‘beat’ l.6 as if it had a will of its own. He tells it to ‘Spend’ and ‘disburse / Our gold’, both actions associated with what human beings do with money.

In the sestet Owen fears the gun’s potential to draw its arm back into the safety of ‘our prosperity’, also personified as ‘the bosom’. The final human action which the gun performs is to finish the spell it has been casting over men l.13. but its personality is present in the final line where Owen prays that God will curse ‘thee’.

‘Arrogance’ and ‘its sins’ in line 5 and 6 is a personification of the enemy. So a whole race is symbolised as one person, named ‘Arrogance’ because of their pride, who ‘needs’ to be punished.

Symbolism

The gun with its long black arm is the overriding symbol in the poem for aggression and destruction. It stands for the militaristic, aggressive spirit which has fuelled the war and which Owen prays will not be incorporated into peacetime life. However, it is so powerful and persuasive that only the greater, divine might of God can in turn curse it and excise it from the soul of humanity.

Investigating imagery and symbolism in Sonnet On Seeing a Piece of Our Heavy Artillery Brought into Action

The personification of the gun in this sonnet reminds us of the personification of the weapons in Anthem for Doomed Youth and The Last Laugh. Read both poems and make a note of the metaphors used in each.
- Compare the way in which Owen uses weapons to show the horror of war.
- Which poem makes the most effective use of the personification of weapons?

Themes in Sonnet On Seeing a Piece of Our Heavy Artillery Brought into Action

The main theme of this sonnet is of aggression, mechanical yet directed by humans. The pity of war is seen in the vulnerability of men in the face of this weapon of destruction. Owen raises the question of nationalism and the cost of the war; ‘our gold’ has been spent to generate much destruction. That God will judge the aggression of man is also a key theme in The Artillery Sonnet.

Investigating themes in Sonnet On Seeing a Piece of Our Heavy Artillery Brought into Action...

This is an unusual poem because, at first reading, Owen seems to be glorifying the gun and all it stands for. How does Owen present his theme of the pity of war and of man’s inhumanity to man to us through this sonnet?
How far do you agree that Owen could understand the need for the Great Gun in an attempt to win the war which would end all wars?
- How did his attitude change in the later poems he wrote?

English Standard Version
King James Version

¹Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ²And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. ⁵And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. ⁶And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. ⁷Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech. ⁸So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. ¹⁰These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. ¹¹And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹²When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. ¹³And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁴When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. ¹⁵And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁶When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. ¹⁷And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁸When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. ¹⁹And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁰When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. ²¹And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters. ²²When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. ²³And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁴When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. ²⁵And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁶When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. ²⁷Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. ²⁸Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. ²⁹And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. ³¹Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. ³²The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

¹And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. ²And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. ³And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. ⁴And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. ⁵And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. ⁶And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. ⁷Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. ⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. ⁹Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. ¹⁰These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: ¹¹And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. ¹²And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: ¹³And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. ¹⁴And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: ¹⁵And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. ¹⁶And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: ¹⁷And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. ¹⁸And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu: ¹⁹And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. ²⁰And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: ²¹And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. ²²And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor: ²³And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. ²⁴And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah: ²⁵And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters. ²⁶And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. ²⁷Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. ²⁸And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. ²⁹And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. ³⁰But Sarai was barren; she had no child. ³¹And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. ³²And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

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