Six Young Men Lyrics

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About

Genius Annotation

Ted Hughes was inspired to write this poem about a family photograph of six young men, friends of his father, taken in a valley near to where Hughes grew up in Yorkshire. All the men pictured were tragically killed in the First World War. This outcome wasn’t surprising, given the practice at the time of placing new recruits from one location together in the same regiment. The intention was to build on the comradeship that would already exist amongst boys who grew up together. The unintended consequence was that some families, villages and towns lost an entire generation of its young men, who died together in the same battle.

While it is ostensibly a poem about the terrible consequences of war, it is also, to use Hughes’s word “ … a meditation…” on the power of a picture to preserve memories and the enduring spirit of the young men, while also reminding us of the brevity of human life and the inevitability of death.

Structure
The poem comprises five stanzas of nine lines each. Lines are of uneven length, but occasional, irregular rhyme gives the poem cohesion. For example, in stanza one “friends” in line two and “hands” in line four are consonantly rhymed. This device, also know as slant rhyme, is, ironically, a technique used by the famous war poet, Wilfred Owen.

**Language and Imagery"“
The voice is that of a first person narrator, we can assume the poet. The tone alternates between ironic understatement and brutal shocking reality. So, for example, the description in stanza three of one man who took playful shots at tin-cans is contrasted with the horror of another’s agonising death in stanza four. The effect is to enhance the sense of tragedy and waste.

For deeper analysis and understanding see the detailed annotations.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

  1. 7.
    Song
  2. 14.
    Incompatibles (Missing Lyrics)
  3. 24.
    The Man Seeking Experience Enquires His Way of a Drop of Water (Missing Lyrics)
  4. 26.
    Wind
  5. 28.
    Roarers in a Ring (Missing Lyrics)
  6. 29.
    Vampire (Missing Lyrics)
  7. 30.
    Childbirth (Missing Lyrics)
  8. 31.
    The Hag (Missing Lyrics)
  9. 33.
    Invitation to the Dance (Missing Lyrics)
  10. 34.
    The Casualty (Missing Lyrics)
  11. 36.
    Griefs for Dead Soldiers (Missing Lyrics)
  12. 37.
    Six Young Men
  13. 38.
    Two Wise Generals (Missing Lyrics)
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