The title “Hymn of the Doomed Youth” is juxtaposed with its actual meaning, the anthem being something to celebrate and be proud of. The assonance between the term “Condemned” and the collective noun “Youth” can be a shock to society, because the themes of death and youth do not go hand in hand. In other words, the soldiers are too young and are already doomed to die by enlisting in the war. This shows how cruel war is as soldiers are robbed of their youth and enter a battlefield designed to "sap the spirit of the soldier." Furthermore, Owen shows that the fallen soldiers themselves will not be given a proper burial consisting of "candles," "sheets," or "flowers." Instead, these are replaced with negative images "the paleness of girls' eyebrows" and the personification of "patient spirits" to demonstrate that the thoughts of those waiting for the fallen soldiers at home are the closest thing more than one funeral. This is embodied in the personification of “bugles calling them from sad counties,” which convey a grieving nation home. Collectively, these poetic devices in "Anthem for the Doomed Youth" show that the deaths of the young soldiers negatively affect the people around them..