War Poetry LO to commence our unit of

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

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

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=e 4 CIHL 1 chy. A • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=s 48 SPvy_0 Q Q

Futility by Wilfred Owen Move 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 now The 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 sides Full-nerved, - still warm, - too hard to stir? Was it for this the clay grew tall? - O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth's sleep at all? Wilfred Owen

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

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

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.

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

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

Suicide in the Trenches • • • • • 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. Seigfried Sasson Alliteration The strong rhythm to this poem makes it sound like a Nursery rhyme.

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.

• • 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 est Pro patria mori. (15) Wilfred Owen • 8 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.

• • 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 Owen 8 October 1917 - March, 1918 Dulce et Decorum est

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

• • 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 Owen 8 October 1917 - March, 1918 Dulce et Decorum est

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

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

PEE!! Now, create your own PEE paragraph, using the analysis that you have written in your sheets. • 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.

PEE Paragraph Home Learning: Please complete two explanations for ‘plunges’ and ‘choking’, and put them into PEE paragraphs. • 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.