Mametz Wood Flashcards
Perspective of poem + context ?
Context
The battle of some fought in 1916 in world war 1, is addressed in poem . As part of the battle, the welsh brigade of soldiers had replaced another squadron . This bat Allison was specifically successful because of CREEPING BARAGE technique with machine guns, however when welsh took over they failed to tell them this technique (neglected), so welsh stood no chance and literally “walked” to their death
- tragic because battle of some but they didn’t need to die UNNECESSARY LOSS OF LIFE
- attack was successful but at what cost?
- Owen sheers is welsh too so writing poem can sense lament full tone as he feels a PERSONAL connection as it gives sense of patriotism and CAMARADERIE = nationalistic poem .
Perspectives comparison?
Whilst this is not authentic and a whole century later whereas dulce was alive and authentic , similar to manhunt
However patriotism here different to soldier, he’s sad that his comrades died particularly soldier just loved England, he also not authentic tho because he died
Statistic for 38th welsh division?
Why he write poem?
Singing?
Lost 4000 men. He came and visited the grave site upon seeing a whole picture of the skeletons linked. Thought that sacrifice was never acknowledged.
Seeing the real photograph makes poem more
At the end welsh soldiers singing their own songs making it seem haunting and reader guilty, they sang and wer not Heard- etc. Traditional welsh songs .
Form and structure ?
Person?
Tercetd what show, line length irregular
Dashed etc
- written in tercetd of three lines and are QUITE RIGID and machine like MILOTARY GUNS .
- irregular line length, giving disjointed sense perhaps reflects chaotic battle.
- fragmented line also shows fragmented bodily descriptions
- Written i third person which creates sense of distance and detachment with soldiers .
- CHRONOLOGICAL shift of emphasis on damage to battle to discovering in the morning . Emphasis on lasting effects of war shows the time it takes for earth to heal.
- Dashes Pause us causing us to reflect force reader to feel feelings
Langauge ?
Themes
- natural world that juxtaposes strikingly images of war : LONG LASTING EFFECTS OFNWAR
- wasted young
- physical descriptions of brokenessm
“For years afterwards” “-them”
Start of poem
“Wasted young”
Shows how heady the battle was as they found remains so long after, also how forgotten they are
“- the,” the soldiers are I identified and nameless , war has stolen their identity
- Shows straight away Owen sheers emphasis and opinion . Oxymoronic as youth not supposed to be wasted but will be and this idea of juxtaposition if life and death also found elsewhere
- “Tended” personified land showing the earth had damage for all this time and need to be looked after. While the earth can recover unfortunately soldiers csn’t (long lasting effects of war)
Physical damage?
Still starfish of poem
“A chit of bine”, the “China plate of a shoulder blade”
What caesura do?
Alternative interprwtion?
- small bones telling a story as “chit “ is a short note/ message.
- China plate is fragile object, shows how violent it was
- Caesura separates each thing apart showing how war took them all one by one
- Alternatively while violent also slightly pretty, these images of mosaic and China plate etc. However this just a poses with the horror of the war making the effect of tragedy of war, but hints of curiosity of him trying to picture what happened and really feel the soldiers struggle themselves, connecting, showing patriotism
“Blown and broken bird’s eggs of a skull”
Compared to this, contrasts violence with fragility if soldier.
- oxymoronic of life and death to tell their story of becoming alive in this unearthing- egg shell supposed to be “new life” but skull is dead, shows this more.
Alliteration highlights emphasis on the contrast
Middle of poem- sense of disadvantage (comparable to dulce)
“Where they were told to walk, not run.”
“Towards nesting machine guns”
(Nesting, where else we see this!’
- command creates a cynical tone and accusatory tone , real sense of dispassion and bitterness by Owen sheers can be sensed here . The orders of hierarchy in army sent the welsh soldiers to death. If not fear negligence they could have been alive, makes more sad .
- in other poem too but this shows the naivety snd highlights the tragedy of the soldiers who died here.
- Nesting again reminds reader of the image of life and death- nesting is where puns as best gives birth to new life, but instead the nest of machine guns have birth . This oxymoronic langauge and semantic field of new life just shows the TRAGEDY of the brigade: Owens trying to capture this in his elegiac poemm
Image of nature reeling still from effects
Middle of poem
“Even now the earth stands sentinel “
“(Reminders of what happened!
“ LIKE A WOUND working a foreign body ti the surface of the skin “
How is land personified, and Jamie thinking of cycle of life and how this been disrupted? Convalescence ?
- “And even now” shows how long the healing process can take , hundreds of years later it’s still happening.
- sheers personifies Land as trying to preserve the bones on a calm day. “Sentinel” links to the soldiers watching and guarding all day and night and suggests the land cannot rest because of horrors it has seen . Although we may have forgot, the land who saw everything, is a testament to their sacrifice and definitely not forgotten..,
-“ like a wound working “ suggests the long lasting effects of war, damage to the land for instance, its trying to cleanse itself of the horrors of war
Jamie analysis?
Images of nature juxtaposes war strikingly . Mother Nature maternal force providing nutrition tindidtain mankind yet gruesome because these nutrition comes from the death of us , gruesome in way nutrients getting out of the ground now (something odd about this cycle, an unnatural use of cycled of life the earth still reels from) (here the soldiers shouldn’t be here, died too young and Mother Nature recognises this , maybe human don’t deserve nature too) (war in human nature?)
THUS takes a long time to heal, idea of CONVALESECNE , slowly healing its way after nature destroyed by mankind but emotionally too, as if Mother Nature grieving deaths too
-
Like splinter In earth- constant reminder to what happened here, exposing truths .
End of poem, long lasting effects of war Emphasis of death (unison?) “This Morning “ -“broken mosaic of bone “ “Skeletons paused mid dance macabre”
- “this morning”, Volta shifts poem to present tense and shifts from the earth to the body of the soldiers. Present tense makes tragedy immediate and recent /real for the reader, purpose of the poem is to educate tand give the unspoken soldiers a voice!!
2. Broken mosaic again looks good (earlier analysis of beauty juxtapose horror of war to show effect ). Mosaic suggests intricate and beauty of human body compared with bones destroyed (he discovering to really connect with them- curious)
3. Images of skeleton dancing crates dark humour , but also reminds the liveliness of the soldier and youth once had. Gives them chance to express the self thst the couldn’t before… sheers wants us to remember the good in the soldier too. Macabric langauge ghastly at the same time
End of poem
Wasted youth : really sad
“ in boots that outlasted them “
“Sockets heads”
“Jaws, those that have them l dropped open”
1.really sad , ironic as ww1 boots replaced so often , fact that they didn’t even last that shows how wasted life was and really puts “walk nit run “ into perspective
(Compare to blood shot dulce)
- also reminds reader vivid and sigurbung image they have decayed
- “Socketed heads” also shows decay
- “Jaws, those that have them, dropped open”
- again sense of disdain here, with narrations intrusive thoughts reminding the extent at which ear claimed their humanity . “Dropped open” suggests they died in a state of shock, which can be imagined as they marched to their death, naively, with a whole future of youth ahead of them…
Compares to manhunt too
End of poem
Gives voice to soldiers who are voiceless
“Notes they had sung “
“With this unearthing, slipped from their absent tongues”
Context?
- “Notes they sung” so,divers often sang to keep spirits up and welsh division particularly had their own home songs they would sing, a part of their identity, into war.
- fact that this “slipped” shows that this discovery gives the so,died a voice they lost. “Slipped” particularly gives a peaceful outlook to the poem ending it with some sort of contentment- atleast they are being considered now.
“Absent tongues”mcreates a haunting tone however. “Absent” suggests it was captured in the ground during the war and the lost Ruth of the welsh division have only just been discovered
Themes
- wasted youth : remembrance letting their voice back
- lasting effects of war on nature and mankind : PHYSICAL HORORS on both nature and mankind (bith justapose too)
- disdain for political people in charge
- m
What type of poem is this with tine and form helping?
Sadness, mournful tone created by longs sentences and enjambment makes it reflective
Thus elegiac
Argue also curious , working out pictures of puzzle, and giving back to soldiers what they deserve, so ends on a higher note…
