Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers

2. Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers For years afterwards the farmers found them – the wasted young, turning up under their plough blades as they tended the land back into itself. A chit of bone, the china plate of a shoulder blade, the relic of a finger, the blown and broken bird’s egg of a skull, all mimicked now in flint, breaking blue in white across this field where they were told to walk, not run, towards the wood and its nesting machine guns. And even now the earth stands sentinel, reaching back into itself for reminders of what happened like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin.

3. This morning, twenty men buried in one long grave, a broken mosaic of bone linked arm in arm, their skeletons paused mid dance-macabre in boots that outlasted them, their socketed heads tilted back at an angle and their jaws, those that have them, dropped open. As if the notes they had sung have only now, with this unearthing, slipped from their absent tongues.

4. 7 stanzas 1. Even today, farmers still find bones and artefacts from the battle. 2. Looking closely they are human remains – bones of the soldiers who died in battle. 3. The ploughed fields bring up flints and bones and reminds us of what once happened here. 4. The land (the natural world) tells the truth of this horrific events.

5. 5. A newly discovered grave from the period of the war has the skeletons arm in arm – they must have been hastily (but respectfully) buried. 6. Jaws are wide open. 7. The poet decides to identify them as some of the Welsh soldiers who took part in the Mametz Wood battle and suggests they died singing which tells us today of their personal triumph.

6. Facts • The battle of Mametz Wood was a real event that took place in July 1916, part of the First Battle of the Somme. The 38th Welsh Division was trying to take a heavily fortified wooded area on high ground. German forces were well equipped with machine guns and the attacking soldiers had to approach across exposed, upwardly sloping land. The 38th Welsh suffered heavy losses (almost 4000), over a period of some 5 days.

7. Opinions • The order to capture the wood and clear it of the enemy was followed but at great cost and the sacrifice of the Welsh soldiers was not acknowledged at the time. • Mametz wood was taken back by the German army who held it until the end of the conflict so the loss of life in 1916 can be seen to have been pointless which links with Owen’sFutility poem.

8. Was it a glorious success or a chaotic failure? • In the words of the officers of a neighbouring division, the advance of the Welsh Division on July 10 was “one of the most magnificent sights of the war”, as wave after wave of men were seen “advancing without hesitation”.Read more: Wales Online http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/welsh-history/articles/2012/04/09/welsh-history-month-mametz-wood-91466-30725385/3/#ixzz2Hwsb8LjA

9. While Sheers was in France, a previously unknown grave was uncovered. It contained the bodies of 20 Allied soldiers, hastily buried but with arms interlinked as described in the poem. Sheers has said that when he saw the photograph of the grave, he knew it was an image that would stay with him and that it was a subject he would want to write about. This poem is the result, surfacing some time later, just as, he says, ‘elements of the battle are still surfacing… years later.’

10. danse macabre is a term used for late medieval writing and painting on the universality of death: no matter one's station in life, the Dance of Death unites all. The Danse Macabre consists of the dead or personified Death summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance along to the grave , typically with a pope, emperor, king, child, and labourer. They were produced to remind people of the fragility of their lives and how vain were the glories of earthly life. The plague made people think about the shortness of their lives.

11. If you wanted to argue that the poem emphasises the violence of the soldiers’ deaths, which quotation would not be useful? a ‘the blown/and broken bird’s egg of a skull’ b ‘nesting machine guns’ c ‘their jaws, those that have them, dropped open’ If you wanted to argue that the poem creates a sense of pathos, which quotation would not be useful? a ‘the wasted young’ b ‘a broken mosaic of bone’ c ‘in boots that outlasted them’

12. If you wanted to argue that the poem seems critical of the violence of the way the battle was managed, which quotation would not be useful? a ‘the wasted young’ b ‘they were told to walk, not run c ‘linked arm in arm’ If you want to argue that the poem portrays war as an offence against nature, which quotation would not be useful? a ‘tended the land back into itself’ b ‘the relic of a finger’ c ‘like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin’

13. What two things are being compared?Which aspects or qualities are being highlighted through this comparison?What effect might this have on the reader? • ‘the china plate of a shoulder blade’ • metaphor / simile / personification • ‘the blown/and broken bird’s egg of a skull’ • metaphor / simile / personification • ‘the earth stands sentinel’ • metaphor / simile / personification • ‘like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin’ • metaphor / simile / personification