I Was just wondering if anyone could tell me what this poem means. What is he trying to say or prove. What is the over all poem trying to tell me.

Arms and the Boy
by Wilfred Owen

1 Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade
2 How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
3 Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash;
4 And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.

5 Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads
6 Which long to muzzle in the hearts of lads.
7 Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth,
8 Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.

9 For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple.
10 There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;
11 And God will grow no talons at his heels,
12 Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.

The last verse seems to be saying that the boy is not made to fight, he does not have teeth like a dog, claws like a cat, spurs like a fighting cock nor antlers like a stag.

Let's not give the child toys, but weapons of death.

pam

And turn him from an innocent into a demon/devil. Compare the devil at the right side of this famous painting by Dürer:

[sunsite.sut.ac.jp]

He is trying to say that the youth that were sent out to battle were sent to be slaughtered as pigs. Pigs are often portrayed as having apples in their mouths when they are being served, "For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple." He is then compared to animal-like warriors who have claws, talons, and antlers as opposed to "fingers supple."