War Poetry

1. War Poetry LO: to commence our unit of War Poetry.

2. Discuss: • An unjust peace is better than a just war. • All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers. • All war is deception.

4. Why write poetry? • What emotions would one feel at war? • Why might someone write poetry on war? • Effects of war? • What is war? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4CIHL1chyA • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s48SPvy_0QQ

5. Futility by Wilfred OwenMove him into the sun -Gently its touch awoke him once,At home, whispering of fields unsown.Always it woke him, even in France,Until this morning and this snow.If anything might rouse him nowThe kind old sun will know. Think how it wakes the seeds -Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sidesFull-nerved, - still warm, - too hard to stir?Was it for this the clay grew tall?- O what made fatuous sunbeams toilTo break earth's sleep at all? Wilfred Owen

6. Images in Poetry LO: to understand some of the images in poetry and to try to create what they image is telling you.

7. Challenging: • Language of a poem • How to create a poem • Structure of a poem • Listening to music and staying awake?!!

8. Imagery in Poetry • One of the objectives of a successful poem is to create pictures into the mind of the reader of important images and issues they want to convey. The imagery in war poetry is very important as they want the reader to understand the suffering they have witnessed and experienced. • Look at the poems and choose one you connect with. • Using some plain paper, draw some of the images you find have an impact on you, or that you think the poet is trying to make you see. • You can either do one large picture, or several small images, dotting words or lines around your picture/s from the poem to show what you are illustrating.

9. In Flanders Fields In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce hear amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields. John McCrae Anthem for Doomed Youth What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? - Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall? Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each show dusk a drawing-down of blinds. Wilfred Owen The Falling Leaves November 1915 Today, as I rode by, I saw the brown leaves dropping from their tree In a still afternoon, When no wind whirled them whistling to the sky, But thickly, silently, They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon; And wandered slowly thence For thinking of a gallant multitude Which now all withering lay, Slain by no wind of age or pestilence, But in their beauty strewed Like snowflakes falling on the Flemish clay. Margaret Postgate Cole

10. Images in poetry LO: to understand some poetry techniques; : to find examples of them in a poem

11. Suicide in the Trenches Alliteration The strong rhythm to this poem makes it sound like a Nursery rhyme. • I knew a simple soldier boy • Who grinned at life in empty joy, • Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, • And whistled early with the lark. • In winter trenches, cowed and glum, • With crumps and lice and lack of rum, • He put a bullet through his brain. • No one spoke of him again. • * * * • You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye • Who cheer when soldier lads march by, • Sneak home and prey you’ll never know • The hell where youth and laughter go. • SeigfriedSasson

12. Images in poetry LO: to find examples of poetic techniques in Dolce et Decorum est; To explain the effect of the techniques in the poems.

13. DULCE ET DECORUM EST • Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)  Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . . Dim, through the misty panes(10) 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,(11) choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind 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 blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)  Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)  To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum estPro patria mori.(15) • Wilfred Owen8 October 1917 - March, 1918 • Notes on Dulce et Decorum Est • 1.  DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country. • 2.  Flares - rockets which were sent up to burn with a brilliant glare to light up men and other targets in the area between the front lines (See illustration, page 118 of Out in the Dark.)  • 3.  Distant rest - a camp away from the front line where exhausted soldiers might rest for a few days, or longer  • 4.  Hoots - the noise made by the shells rushing through the air  • 5.  Outstripped - outpaced, the soldiers have struggled beyond the reach of these shells which are now falling behind them as they struggle away from the scene of battle   •  6.  Five-Nines - 5.9 calibre explosive shells  • 7.  Gas! -  poison gas. From the symptoms it would appear to be chlorine or phosgene gas. The filling of the lungs with fluid had the same effects as when a person drowned • 8.  Helmets -  the early name for gas masks  • 9.  Lime - a white chalky substance which can burn live tissue  • 10.  Panes - the glass in the eyepieces of the gas masks  • 11.  Guttering - Owen probably meant flickering out like a candle or gurgling like water draining down a gutter, referring to the sounds in the throat of the choking man, or it might be a sound partly like stuttering and partly like gurgling  • 12.  Cud - normally the regurgitated grass that cows chew usually green and bubbling. Here a similar looking material was issuing from the soldier's mouth  • 13.  High zest - idealistic enthusiasm, keenly believing in the rightness of the idea  • 14.  ardent - keen  • 15.  Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - see note 1 above.

14. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)  Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . . Dim, through the misty panes(10) 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,(11) choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind 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 blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)  Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)  To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.(15) • Wilfred Owen8 October 1917 - March, 1918 Dulce et Decorum est

15. Effect of Poetic Techniques LO: to understand why poetic techniques are used and the effects that they produce.

16. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)  Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . . Dim, through the misty panes(10) 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,(11) choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind 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 blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)  Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)  To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum estPro patria mori.(15) • Wilfred Owen8 October 1917 - March, 1918 Dulce et Decorum est

17. Effects of word choices Word Choice Effect? • Good • Nice • Very fast • Hard How might we create a stronger effect with word choices?

18. Analysing Language LO: LO: to analyse language, through PEE paragraphs, in both poems for effect. To find images in our poems, relating to war.

19. Now, create your own PEE paragraph, using the analysis that you have written in your sheets. PEE!! • The poet creates a very hostile atmosphere using the technique of onomatopoeia. • ‘Plunges’, ‘guttering’, ‘choking’ and ‘drowning’ • Choking: • D) Can’t breathe • C) scared, anxious, gagging and struggling • B) desperate for an end, helpless, feeling death biting at our heels, sharp movements, awkward, hurtful movements. • Plunges: • D) to put under water • C) a sharp movement, felling pain • B) feeling desperate that there is no end to the abuse; willing the pain to end, a violent, forceful movement, gasping for air.

20. Home Learning: Please complete two explanations for ‘plunges’ and ‘choking’, and put them into PEE paragraphs. PEE Paragraph • The poet creates a very hostile atmosphere using the technique of onomatopoeia. • ‘Plunges’, ‘guttering’, ‘choking’ and ‘drowning’ • suggest that the poet is in pain. The sound of the words are harsh, especially ‘choking’ and ‘plunges’ as they make us experience the turmoil that the poet is experiencing. • The words make us feel anxious, scared and begging for an end to the pain that is being felt. We can feel the movement of the word ‘plunge’ as it is a violent word that forces a feeling of abuse and panic on us, lending itself to the hostile atmosphere.