Anthem for Doomed Youth, US paperback edition

by Carola Dunn

Anthem for Doomed Youth, the nineteenth Daisy Dalrymple mystery, comes out in paperback in the US today.

Kirkus: "amusing and sprightly"

Mysterious Women: "gripping and fascinating" 

An interesting contrast! Just goes to show every reader finds something different.


This is the poem that inspired the book, and provided its title:

ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH,
by Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them from prayers or bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,--
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen died a week before the Armistice.