mametz wood

Question 1

author

Answer 1

owen sheers

Question 2

context

Answer 2

• refers to battle of the somme where 1mil men died

- poem written in the 2000s to acknowledge their bravery and sacrifice

Question 3

structure

Answer 3

The poem’s structure is in regular three-line stanzas almost reflecting the neat linear pattern of a ploughed field.
However, at times the length of the lines change, with longer lines breaking up the neat form.
This disrupted pattern could reflect the ‘chits of bone’ rising out of the ground and disrupting our attempts to forget the past.

begins with in media res

Question 4

paragraph 1

Answer 4

• rough and brutal conditions, suffering of the soldiers
• ‘wasted young’ - wasted lives of the soldiers
• ‘chit of bone, china plate of a shoulder blade’ - fricative ‘ch’ sound, machine gun, fragility
• ‘told to walk, not run’ - instructed to not show any fear, even though it was dangerous
• ‘twenty men buried in one long grave’ - comrades linked together

Question 5

paragraph 2

Answer 5

• aftermath, war strips nature of its beauty
• ‘tended the land back into itself’ - land has been disrupted
• ‘reaching back into itself’ - past is represented in the earth, trying to return through the soil
• ‘skeletons paused mid dance-macabre’ - horrifying imagery, ruins beauty of nature