The Send-OffThe Send-Off

War PoetryWar Poetry

ContentsIntroduction

Wilfred Owen and the Social Historical Context A brief biography of Wilfred Owen and an exploration of the poem’s context.

Lesson 1

What is it about? Read the poem, discussion of ideas, consolidation of understanding.

Lesson 2

Imagery Discuss the poem’s use of imagery.

Lesson 3

Style and form Analysis of style and form and Owen’s use of poetic devices.

Lesson 4

Language Exploration of word choices and depth of meaning, using P.E.E to write about language.

Lesson 5

Themes Themes of the poem explored, consolidation of the poet’s meaning and purpose

Links Where to find further information about Wilfred Owen and World War One resources

Wilfred Wilfred OwenOwen

Wilfred Wilfred OwenOwen

Objectives:

• To learn aboutWilfred Owenand the context of Owen’s poetry

Wilfred OwenWilfred OwenOver the coming lessons we will be studying the poem The Send-Off but before we read the poem we need to find out a little bit about the author. Wilfred Owen, a British poet and soldier, was one of the leading poets of World War One. His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trench life was in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time, and to the patriotic verses written by war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Owen was killed in action a week before the war ended.

Click the picture to watch a short film about Wilfred Owen

World War OneWorld War One

Historical ContextWilfred Owen is one of the most famous war poets. He was born in 1893 and died in 1918, just one week from the end of World War One. His poetry is characterised by powerful descriptions of the conditions faced by soldiers in the trenches.

World War One took place between 1914 and 1918 and is remembered particularly for trench warfare, the use of gas and the appalling and senseless slaughter of millions of men, many as young as 15 years old.

Owen’s poems are often violent and realistic, challenging earlier poetry which communicated a pro-war message. The first-hand experience of war is arguably one reason why there is such a shift in the attitude of poets towards war.

World War OneWorld War One

Click the images to watch two brief films about the First World War

See British troops boarding a train

bound for the warLife in the trenches

The Send-Off

An An introduction introduction to the poemto the poem

Objectives:• To read and listen to ‘The Send-

Off’• To discuss ideas/first

impressions • To consolidate general

understanding of the poem

The Send-Off The Send-Off Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their wayTo the siding-shed,And lined the train with faces grimly gay.

Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and sprayAs men's are, dead.

Dull porters watched them, and a casual trampStood staring hard,Sorry to miss them from the upland camp.

Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lampWinked to the guard.

The Send-Off The Send-Off So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.They were not ours:We never heard to which front these were sent.

Nor there if they yet mock what women meantWho gave them flowers.

Shall they return to beatings of great bellsIn wild trainloads?A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,

May creep back, silent, to still village wells,Up half-known roads.

What is it about?What is it about?Read and/or listen to the poem for the first

time, what do you think it is about?

Click here for a video reading of the poem

What is it about?

Stanza What is happening

Stanzas 1 & 2

Owen describes...

Stanzas 3 & 4

Stanzas 5 & 6

Stanzas 7 & 8

The poem is made up of eight brief stanzas. Can you work out what is happening in each? Complete the table

below:

Consolidate UnderstandingConsolidate UnderstandingWhat are your first impressions of this poem? Below are a few sentence starters to help you write a paragraph about it.

12th October 11

The Send-Off

‘The Send-Off’ by _____ is about …

In the first two stanzas the poet …

The third and fourth stanzas describes…

Stanzas five and six…

In the final two stanzas Owen is saying…

ConsolidationIn ‘The Send Off’ Owen describes the scene as a group of soldiers are being sent off to war.  The men have just come from a sending-off ceremony - cheering crowds, bells, drums, flowers given by strangers – and are now being packed into trains heading for the war. The scene is full of mourning and indignity. The soldiers are waved goodbye by a "dull porter" and a "casual tramp." Owen hints at the fate of many of the men, "Their chests were stuck all white with wreath and spray, as men's are dead." Here Owen reminds us that many of these men will not return home. This is reinforced in the line "A few, a few, too few, will return..." to "creep back silent... up half-known roads.”

ImageryImagery

ImageryImagery

Objectives:

• Analyse the imagery used by Wilfred Owen in ‘The Send-Off’

ImageryImageryLook at the imagery used by Owen in this poem. What words

and phrases are used to describe the scene at the train station?

How does Owen create a sinister mood at the start of the poem? What do you think has happened to the cheering crowds? How might the men be feeling now they are on the train? What words are used to suggest silence and secrecy? What images remind you of a funeral?

ImageryLook at the imagery used in the first four stanzas. Why does the poet use these particular images?

The ImagesThe Images What the image What the image conveysconveys

Down the close, darkening lanes

they sang their wayTo the siding-shed

faces grimly gay

Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and sprayAs men's are, dead

Dull porters watched them, and a casual trampStood staring hard

unmoved, signals nodded, and a lampWinked to the guard.

ImageryLook at the imagery used in the final four stanzas. Why does the poet use these particular images?

The ImagesThe Images What the image What the image conveysconveys

So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went

We never heard to which front these were sent

Shall they return to beatings of great bellsIn wild trainloads?

A few, a few, too few for drums and yells

creep back, silent, to still village wells,Up half-known roads

‘‘Wrongs Wrongs hushed-hushed-

up’up’

From the beginning, the atmosphere seems menacing. The lanes are ‘darkening’ and claustrophobic and the siding shed reminds us of a slaughterhouse. Send-Off celebrations are over, the crowds have dispersed and the soldiers are watched only by 'dull' porters and a tramp. The flowers given to the men have a double meaning as white flowers are associated with death.The departure of the soldiers appears secretive, ‘like wrongs hushed-up’. Owen suggests that this is because the true nature of what is happening to them is being hidden.

Style and Style and StructureStructure

Poetic devicesPoetic devices& structure& structure

Objectives:

• Analyse the use of poetic devices and structure in ‘The Send-Off’

StructurStructuree

The poem has an unusual structure: a three line stanza followed by a two line stanza, linked together by rhyme. The stanzas are made up of long and short lines, the short line creating a mood of bitterness and quiet anger.Symbols of death are repeated through out the stanzas, ‘bells’, white ‘flowers’ and the ‘wreath’ all point the reader to the fate that awaits thousands of such men.

StructurStructuree

The poem also has a number of contradictions and ambiguities. The oxymoron ‘grimly gay’ in the men's expressions emphasises the uncertainty of their departure and possibly the realisation of the destiny which awaits them. The poem is set at dusk and the darkness acts as a metaphor for the dark future that lays ahead. An atmosphere of conspiracy exists throughout the poem but is emphasised in stanza four. The signal ‘nods’, the lamp ‘winks’ to the guard and the men are silently taken away by the train into the night.

Poetic Techniques

TechniqueTechnique DefinitionDefinitionpersonification the act or process of saying or writing

something again

simile the attribution of human qualities to objects

alliteration a comparison between two different things, especially a phrase

containing the word 'like' or 'as’

repetition the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words in a sentence

Match the technique with the correct definition.

Poetic Techniques

TechniqueTechnique DefinitionDefinitionpersonification the act or process of saying or writing

something again

simile the attribution of human qualities to objects

alliteration a comparison between two different things, especially a phrase

containing the word 'like' or 'as’

repetition the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words in a sentence

Match the technique with the correct definition.

Poetic TechniquesThink about the poetic techniques discussed on the

last slide. Copy down the table below. Find examples in the poem and write down the effect created.

Technique Evidence Effect

personification ‘unmoved, signals nodded, and a lampWinked to the guard’

alliteration ‘white with wreath’

simile

repetition

Poetic DevicesPoetic DevicesHow does Owen use structure and poetic devices to describe the scene as the soldiers board the trains and leave for the war? Use the sentence starters below to help you write a paragraph about it.

12th June 11

The Send-Off

In ‘The Send-Off’ Wilfred Owen uses a number of poetic devices…

The simile…

Personification such as……

Alliteration is used to..

Writing Writing about about poetry poetry using using P.E.EP.E.E

Writing about poetry Writing about poetry and P.E.Eand P.E.E

Objectives:• To understand how to use P.E.E

when writing about poetry

Writing about the poemWriting about the poem You should always, when writing about any text, use the P.E.E formula. Make a point, find some

evidence and then explain the evidence in detail.

Point, Evidence, ExplainPoint, Evidence, Explain Look at how Owen uses language in the poem. Make three good points about

the poem, select three quotations to back up your points then explain the quotations in detail.

Point Evidence Explain

The poem begins with an ominous and foreboding mood.

‘Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their wayTo the siding-shed,And lined the train with faces grimly gay.’

Owen uses language here to create a feeling of fear and impending doom. The ‘close, darkening lanes’ are claustrophobic and frightening and the send-off is clouded in darkness as the men bid farewell to home and head into the unknown.

Don’t forget to explain Don’t forget to explain yourselfyourselfUse the information from the table to write three points

about how Owen uses language, structure and devices in the poem. Add a quote and explanation for each point.

For exampleFor example

The poem describes…

In the first stanza the poet…

This conveys...

Read your paragraph about ‘The Send-Off’ to the rest of the group.

Ask your peers how it could be improved.

PlenaryPlenary

Themes Themes and Linksand Links

Themes and linksThemes and links

Objectives:

• To explore the themes of the poem• Consolidate knowledge and

understanding of the poet’s meaning and purpose

ThemesThemesThis is an anti-war poem. The opening stanza reveals that this is not an occasion of celebration and happiness but one of fear and shame. By the time the train leaves for the front the cheering crowds have gone and only a porter and a tramp are there to watch the men go. The soldiers try to be cheerful by singing and smiling but their happiness seems forced and false hiding their fear. Owen presents the soldiers as naive and innocent victims. Like lambs to the slaughter they head off to war unaware that only a very few will ever return.

LinksLinks

LinksLinksAnnotated copy of the poem

The Wilfred Owen Website

The War Poetry website

Audio reading of the poem by Kenneth Branagh

World War One resources