<p>Futility </p><p>By Wilfred Owen (written May*, 1918)</p><p>Move him into the sun—</p><p>Gently its touch awoke him once,</p><p>At home, whispering of fields unsown.</p><p>Always it awoke him, even in France,</p><p>Until this morning and this snow.</p><p>If anything might rouse him now</p><p>The kind old sun will know.</p><p>Think how it wakes the seeds—</p><p>Woke, once, the claysi of a cold star.</p><p>Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides</p><p>Full-nerved,- still warm,- too hard to stir?</p><p>Was it for this the clay grew tall?</p><p>- O what made fatuousii sunbeams toil</p><p>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’</p>