Both poems contain lines of iambic pentameter, in fact in 'The Send Off' lines one three and four of each stanza are written in iambic pentameter. This gives the poem a constant rhythm, much like that of the train the soldiers are traveling in on their way to France. This makes the images of the men being sent of and rushed away secretly stronger for the reader. In contrast, the lines of iambic pentameter in 'Anthem For Doomed Youth' are used in contrast to lines such as 'What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?' which has eleven syllables instead of the usual ten and the line 'Only the monstrous anger of the guns', a trochee, almost the complete opposite of an iambic pentameter. Owen includes many of these variations throughout the poem. He does this to unsettle the reader so they do not grow too comfortable with these rituals of grief either wise they may miss, or feel fewer of the powerful emotions Owen is portraying.
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