Move Him Into the Sun

Futility

By Wilfred Owen (written May*, 1918)

Move him into the sun—

Gently its touch awoke him once,

At home, whispering of fields unsown.

Always it awoke 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 claysi 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 fatuousii sunbeams toil

To break earth's sleep at all? i Biblical reference to humans being made from ‘clay’. The line asks whether the creation of humankind was ‘futile’ because of the presence of war and suffering. Genesis 2:7 – “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” The idea of man being made from clay is one that crops up in many other religions too. ii Means childish / pointless / ‘stupid’