2 - Mametz Wood Flashcards
What is the context of the poem ‘Mamet Wood’?
Sheers’ poetry draws on his Welsh heritage and interest in war literature.
Scene of fierce fighting during battle of Somme in July 1916 involving Welsh Division, one of bloodiest battles of WW1.
Battle lasted 5 days, with 4000 casualties and 600 dead.
Sheers visited on 85th anniversary and was struck by how remains of battle were stilling rising to the surface.
Battle represents brutality and high cost of trench warfare during WW1, with Welsh Division facing significant challenges and casualties in dense forest.
What is the structure and form of the poem ‘Mametz Wood’?
7, regular tercets, contributing to sense of structure.
Line lengths uneven and poem isn’t presented neatly, emblematic of uneven ploughed field or chits of bone rising out of ground.
Poem feels controversial and informal due to differing line lengths and disruptive use of enjambment and caesura.
No set rhyme scheme.
One of only clear rhymes is in final stanza- “sung” and “tongues”, significant as gives sense of closure at soldiers being recognised and deeds acknowledged.
Irregular rhythm.
Lines vary in syllable count and length, with enjambment and caesura disrupting rhythm, mirroring sporadic revelation of earth’s secrets.
What are the main themes of the poem ‘Mametz Wood’?
Remembrance
Death
Memory
Treatment of the dead
Futility of war
Effects of conflict
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Mametz Wood’ for the theme of remembrance?
Anthem for Doomed Youth
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Last Post
What Lips My Lips Have Kissed
Requiem for the Croppies
Easter Monday
Poppies
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Mametz Wood’ for the theme death?
Anthem for Doomed Youth
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Requiem for the Croppies
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Easter Monday
Vergissmeinnicht
Out of the Blue
The Man He Killed
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Mametz Wood’ for the theme of memory?
What Lips My Lips Have Kissed
Easter Monday
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Mametz Wood’ for the theme of treatment of the dead?
Requiem for the Croppies
Vergissmeinnicht
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Mametz Wood’ for the theme of futility of war?
Anthem for Doomed Youth
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Bayonet Charge
Last Post
The Man He Killed
What poems can be used to compare with the poem ‘Mametz Wood’ for the theme of effects of conflict?
Bayonet Charge
Vergissmeinnicht
The Man He Killed
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Poppies
What is the analysis for stanza 1 of the poem ‘Mametz Wood’?
Poet highlights injustice of history at not properly acknowledging such a significant event, suggests effects of conflict on soldiers have been forgotten, read as attempt to reclaim their history and give soldiers recognition.
‘For years afterwards’ - fact that remnants of battle continue to be found emphasises how deadly battle was.
For years afterwards the farmers found them’ - verb suggests unearthing remains was accidental.
‘…farmers found them -‘ - caesura slows pace reinforcing how remains of brutalised soldiers have akin here for years without being uncovered.
‘the wasted young’ - emphasises senseless slaughter and meaningless death during battle.
‘…up under their plough blades’ - alliteration makes seem like young men were carelessly lost.
‘…up under their plough blades’ - fact that bones are resurfacing shows how land is haunted by trauma of battle.
‘…as they tended the land back into itself.’ - landscape also ravaged, still in healing process, farmers trying to move on from past.
What is the analysis for stanza 2 of the poem ‘Mametz Wood’?
‘A chit of bone’ - harsh consonance echoes sound of gunfire and reinforces destruction that took place on battlefield.
‘..the china plate’ - metaphor suggests soldiers were fragile and delicate in face of weaponry.
‘…a shoulder blade’ - speakers depicts remains of soldiers to illustrate how some merely view them as curious relics of history. Rejects this view, believes soldiers and their sacrifice worthy of remembrance.
‘…the relic of a finger’ - only remnants of soldiers remain, reinforces how they were completely destroyed by war.
‘…the relic of a finger’ - term “relic” removes humanity of killed soldiers, depicts them as historical objects.
‘…the blown…’ - remains fragmented and broken apart, impossible to differentiate one person from another.
‘…broken bird’s egg of a skull’ - plosive alliteration vividly evokes suffering of soldiers.
‘…broken bird’s egg of a skull’ - remains now deteriorated, thin and fragile.
What is the analysis for stanza 3 of the poem ‘Mametz Wood’?
Enjambment between previous stanza and this stance shows how remains unfolding out of land and being revealed. Also reinforce how their memory and sacrifice will live on.
‘all mimicked now in flint’ - speaker suggests violence of that day only mimicked here and never be able to fully appreciate horror of it.
‘breaking blue in white’ - speaker vividly evokes colour of bones.
‘…across this field’ - frustrated/resentful tone orders soldiers followed made them easier targets and more vulnerable.
‘…we’re told to walk’ - alliterative phrase reinforces how poor instructions resulted in disastrous consequences.
‘towards the wood’ - preposition - soldiers walked straight into a trap.
‘…it’s nesting machine guns’ - enemy depicted as predatory, well-hidden and waiting for Welsh soldiers.
What is the analysis for stanza 4 of the poem ‘Mametz Wood’?
‘And even now…’ - speaker laments in how much time has passed, isn’t adequate recognition for what they did.
‘…the earth stands sentinels’ - alliterative metaphor - land only remaining witness to tragedy, for years have guarded and protected remains of soldiers.
‘…for reminders of what happened’ - personification - land preserves memory of what happened, even though forgotten by others.
‘…like a wound working a foreign body’ - simile suggests war is an illness that land trying to cleanse itself of.
‘…wounded working’ - alliteration, pain and suffering still lingers years later.
‘…working a foreign body’ - when a forgoing body surfaces, land may begin to heal.
‘…working a foreign body’ - soldiers shouldn’t have died here in manner they did, depicted as foreign to land.
‘…the surface of the skin’ - sibilance shows earth doesn’t want to carry burden of remains and wants to set them free.
‘…the surface of the skin’ - healing from trauma comes through remembering event and soldiers sacrifice.
What is the analysis for stanza 5 of the poem ‘Mametz Wood’?
‘This morning’ - speaker switches to present, reinforcing how effects of battle are still felt.
‘…twenty men buried in one long grave’ - soldiers physically and emotionally linked, dying together on battlefield.
‘…one long grave’ - didn’t have luxury or dignity of individual graves.
‘…a broken mosaic…’ - term “mosaic” suggests arrangement of skeletons was carefully constructed and were buried with care.
‘…linked arm in arm’ - repetition reinforces unity and comradeship of soldiers.
‘…skeletons paused…’ - metaphor reinforces how soldiers’ life’s were cut short and tragically taken too early, speaker criticises waste of young life in war.
‘…mid dance-macabre’ - gruesome image of skeletons leading people to death suggests death was unavoidable in circumstances they found themselves in.
What is the analysis for stanza 6 of the poem ‘Mametz Wood’?
‘…in boots that outlasted them’ - speaker reinforces soldiers’ deaths were futile and a waste.
‘their socketed heads…’ - adjective illustrates soldiers were violently mutilated in battle and died in pain.
‘…tilted back at an angle’ - remains of soldiers are misshapen and distorted.
‘…those that have them…’ - speaker symbolically suggests not every soldier will have a voice.
‘…dropped open.’ - speaker imagines fallen soldiers feeling shock and anger at not being remembered.
What is the analysis for stanza 7 of the poem ‘Mametz Wood’?
‘As if the notes they had sung…’ - dead are trying to communicate with living.
‘As if the notes they had sung…’ - musical metaphor shows fallen soldiers are Halley that they finally have a voice.
‘…slipped…’ - verb reinforces accidental nature of this scenario, soldiers were discovered, not actively sought out.
‘…slipped from their absent tongues.’ - speaker resents how only now soldiers have a voice, but thankful soldiers have finally been recognised after years of not being appreciated.
‘…slipped from their absent tongues.’ - tongues symbolically absent as soldiers previously been silenced by death and passage of time.
What is the content, meaning and purpose of the poem ‘Mametz Wood’?
Explores aftermath of WW1 through discovery of remains of soldier years later.
Poem begins with farmers finding skeletal remains of young soldiers, revealing fragments of bones scattered across field.
Landscape serves as reminder of violence that occurred, with nature revealing remnants of past.
Portrays war as tragic event that leaves behind legacy of devastation, with soldiers’ skeletal remains serving as reminder of lives lost.
Imagery of soldiers’ absent tongues suggests sense of silence and loss, as voices silenced by death.
Poem serves as tribute to soldiers who sacrificed their lives at war.
