Year 9 – English class – Conflict Poetry from WW1

Learning outcomes

1. To learn about the importance of context to poetry2. To develop research skills – identifying key facts, summarizing the

information

Task One

In pairs, discuss what the word ‘war’ means to you. Use the questions below to structure your discussion.

a. What images spring to mind when you hear the word ‘war’?b. Think about images you have seen in newspaper and on the

news. What image is portrayed of war?c. Discuss what you know about World War 1. Why do you think it

was different to previous wars?

Task Two - In groups guess the answers.

1. When did WW1 happen?a. 1916-1924b. 1914-1918c. 1939-1945d. 1940-1950

2. Which of the following is another name for WW1?a. The Great Warb. The Western Warc. The Eastern Ward. The Versailles War

3. Which countries were fighting against each other?

a) England, France vs Germany, Italy, Austria- Hungaryb) England, Germany vs Russia, Austria- Hungaryc) England, Germany vs Austria-Hungary, Franced) England, France, Russia vs Germany, Italy, Austria- Hungary

4. How were soldiers recruited?a. Obligatory service for men over 18b. Voluntary service for men over 18c. Only country’s already existing army would go to ward. Strongest men from each town would be selected

1

5. How many men were in the British Army?

a) 11 millionb) 8.5 millionc) 9 milliond) 12 million

6. What were trenches for?

a) Fightingb) Sleepingc) Eatingd) Protection

7. Which of the following was NOT first used in WW1?

a) Aeroplane attacksb) Tanksc) Gas chambersd) Chorine and mustard gas

8. How many people do you think died and/or were wounded during WW1?

10 millionb) 20 million c) 30 million d) 40 million

Now check your answers. As you are watching the video also answer the following questions:

1. How did WW1 begin?2. How was this war different from previous wars?3. Find out about the effects the war had on the veterans

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1nfriqtIU8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRv56gsqkzs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW2aeXZLN24&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTY7v1Q_vnc&feature=related

2

Extension activity - homework

‘It is right and fitting to die for your country’. 1. Research the propaganda techniques used to recruit soldiers in WW1. To what extent do you agree with this sentiment? E.g.

Research images of war. Look in particular at images of war from the late 1800’s and also World War 1. Bring to class an image that shows how you feel about war.

3

Study of Poetry from WW1

• Poetry from the First World War was written by soldiers who served at the Western Front.

• They saw the horrors of War first hand.• They wrote about what they really saw. • Their poems were published just after the war, so they were not

censored. They are first hand and often unbiased sources.

Learning Outcomes

To explain the use of language techniques in poems

Read the poem below, written at the beginning of “The Great War”

Highlight the following in 3 DIFFERENT COLORS: Language depicting natural imagery AND England Language dealing with romance/love Language dealing with death

“The Soldier”By English poet Rupert Brooke

If I should die, think only this of me:That there's some corner of a foreign fieldThat is forever England. There shall beIn that rich earth a richer dust concealed;A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,A body of England's, breathing English air,Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,A pulse in the eternal mind, no lessGives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

4

Analyzing how IMAGERY points to meaning:

1. How does the poet feel about England, his home? Cite the best example from the poem that shows his attitude about England.

2. How does the poet feel about war and death? Cite the best example from the poem that shows this.

3. Why do you think Brooke used such loving, almost romantic diction? What does that tell the reader about his feeling about war and England?

4. Based on your understanding of imagery and meaning, write a in one sentence THEME that fits this poem this poem:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

N.B.

Refer to Powerpoint for analysis and PEE example

5

Dulce Et Decorum Est”By Wilfred Owenhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8-x3Ls0zC4Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,Till on the haunting flares we turned our backsAnd towards our distant rest began to trudge.Men marched asleep. Many had lost their bootsBut limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hootsOf tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;But someone was yelling out and stumblingAnd flound’ring like a man in a fire or lime…Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could paceBehind the wagon that we flung him in,And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;If you could hear, at every jolt, the bloodCome gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud,Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--My friend, you would not tell with such high zestTo children ardent for some desperate glory,The old Lie: Dulce et decorum estPro patria mori.

Vocabulary Worksheet.

Read the poem again. Find the following words in the poem. Write, in the space provided, the meaning of the words as they are used

in the poem.

Example:(line 3) HAUNTING means GHOSTLY

(line 7) FATIGUE

(line 9) ECSTASY

Five Nines are large artillery shells used

during WWI.

6

(line 12) FLOUNDERING

(line 16) GUTTERING

(line 19) WRITHING

(line 22) GARGLING

(line 23) OBSCENE

(line 23) CUD

(line 25) ZEST

(line 26) ARDENT

Use a dictionary if you wish, but DO NOT SIMPLY COPY OUT THE DEFINITION. Try to explain the word as the poet uses it.

The life of Wilfred Owen.

Wilfred Owen was born in Oswestry, England on March 18th, 1893. His family was middle class with one sister and two brothers. His mother was a deeply religious Calvinist who remained very close to Wilfred for most of his life. His father was an independent, impatient man who enjoyed reading and music. Both parents had a profound affect on Wilfred's life. Although he couldn't afford a University education, he studied at Shrewsbury Technical School until 1911, when he went to Dunsden, Oxfordshire, as a pupil and lay assistant to the vicar.

In 1914, Owen went to live with the Legar family to tutor two Catholic boys in France. When war broke out he was living the life of a cultivated, French provincial society and on excellent terms with his employer, Mme. Legar.

Owen's first experience with the war is actually not on the battlefield, but in a hospital where many casualties had recently arrived from the front lines. There he witnessed several surgeries performed without anaesthesia of which he wrote to his family. The letters are ruthless and self-important, but there is a sharpness in the observation and a truthfulness we observe in his later poems. He wanted to shock, but not just for the sake of shocking. At first he had no desire to enter the service. He had not written or read poetry for quite some time, and felt he should pursue business. However, by June 4th, 1916, he was commissioned in the Manchester Regiment. At the end of the year, he was sent to France.

For the next two years, his life was, what could only be described as hell. However, it was these years in which his poetry rapidly matured. Gone were the days of false poeticism and ghostly air, devoid of substance and conviction. It should be explained that the environment of the war was very much the same wherever you were sent-- a desolate landscape of trenches,

7

craters, barbed wire, ruined buildings, splintered trees, mud, and the corpses of animals and men. Owen's poetry of this time was also very much filled with protest and social criticism. At the time, there was a great gulf between the fighting man and the civilian at home, and between the front-line and the commanding officers. Wilfred often felt more compassion for those on the other side of the barbed wire, shooting at him, rather than the men and women at home profiting from or ignoring the war. The war poems reveal Owen as a poet equipped in both technique and character alike.

Internet research project.

1. Where was Wilfred Owen born, brought up, and where did he die?

2. Was Wilfred Owen a believer in war? How do you know this?3. Did Wilfred Owen ever go to war? If so, where did he fight? What was

his job?4. Sketch a plan of the inside of a trench.5. What were some of the symptoms of trench fever?6. What caused Trench foot, and how did it have an effect on you

physically? 7. What caused rats to flock to the trenches? What did they live on?8. What was Shell Shock?9. Dysentery was a very serious illness. What happened to you if you

caught it? How was it caught?10.What was included in the rations backpack? Could you live in these

conditions?Complete these questions on lined paper and write a paragraph about the conditions in the trenches. End the paragraph with your opinion. Were these conditions good enough to live in? Could you actually put up with these conditions?

Reference to the powerpoint

8

Dulce Et Decorum Est. – Questions.

1. During the first eight lines of the poem, Wilfred Owen describes tired and weary men. List the phrases which tell you the men are weary.

….bent double………like old beggars under sacks …………….. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Explain what Wilfred Owen sees in his dreams. Read lines 15 and 16 of the poem.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Highlight the examples of visual imagery. ______________________________________________________________________________________

4. Highlight the examples of auditory imagery._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Is Wilfred Owen pro-war or anti-war? Explain your answer

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Imagery: Why does Owen use so much visual and auditory imagery? How does the imagery in this poem contrast with the title and last two lines of the poem? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Overview of Poem: Is Wilfred Owen pro-war or anti-war? How do you know? What about Brook? How do you know?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is the theme of the poem? Explain you answer.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Compare: How is this poem different from Brooke’s “A Soldier”__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dulce et Decorum Est

10

Study Questions

1. Summarise all the negative aspects of war (in your own words) as described by Owen in this poem.

2. Why are the opening lines of the poem surprising? Use a quote to illustrate and explain how this unexpected image is created.

3. How are the men feeling in the opening stanza? Offer a quote from the poem and go on to explain what this shows about their physical and mental condition.

4. In the first stanza the soldiers’ senses are numbed: Offer evidence and explain why this is the case.

5. How is the rhythm/pace of the poem quickened in stanza 2? Give a quote and explain why Wilfred Owen chose to do this?

6. Stanza 2: What makes the description of death by poisonous/mustard gas so dramatic? Give a quote and explain technique has Owen employed?

7. Where is the poet in stanzas 3 and 4? Why can he not sleep at night? Quote from the poem and explain what this implies about this mental state.

8. What is surprising about how the dead are treated in the last stanza?

9. What is the tone of the last 4 lines of the poem? Use a quote to support your answer. What did the poet feel like this?

10) Copy out and fill in the following table in your notebooks. You must identify the technique and explain how it adds to the meaning of the poem.

Introduce quote Example from poem

Poetic technique

How it adds to the meaning ofthe poem

In his dreams the memories of death come rushing back to him.

‘before my helpless sight/ he plunges at me’

Word choice This shows that his memories are haunting him and he cannot control the horrible pain that he witnessed.

‘Drunk with fatigue’‘As under a green sea, I saw him drowning’‘If in some smothering

In the poem Dulce et Decorum Est , the poet uses many poetic techniques to attract the reader’s attention and create a dramatic impression of what he is describing.

11

dreams’‘watch the ‘white eyes writhing’‘Obscene as cancer’‘Friend you would not tell with such high zest’‘The old Lie’

Metaphor, Simile, Alliteration, Word choice, Addressing reader, Irony

12