Mametz Wood

Question 1

(MW) themes

Answer 1

• memory
• sacrifice
• death
• effects of conflict
• futility

Question 2

(MW) author background (Owen Sheers)

Answer 2

• didn’t go to war
• is anti-war
• wrote the poem about loss of lives, less emphasis on fighting
• was angry at the loss of lives, particularly welsh

Question 3

(MW) structure

Answer 3

• enjambment - memory and sacrifice lives on
• 7 tercets - lengths uneven symbolizing the chits of bone / uneven field
• no rhyme scheme - only in “sung” and “old tongues” - sense of closure in last stanza

Question 4

(MW) “farmer found them - “

Answer 4

Alliteration and caesura

Emphasises the lingering effects of war

Also slows the pace to reinforce how long the remains were there

Question 5

(MW) ”a chit of bone, the china plate”

Answer 5

Harsh consonance

Reinforces destruction and sounds like gunfire

Question 6

(MW) ”where they were told to walk, not run,”

Answer 6

alliteration and frustrated / resentful tone

Illustrates how the welsh soldiers were easy targets due to the orders

Also reinforces the consequences of the commands

Question 7

(MW) ”surface of the skin”

Answer 7

Sibilance

The ground doesn’t want the burden of carrying the remains and wants to set them free

Question 8

(MW) “broken mosaic”

Answer 8

oxymoron

Highlights the sheer destruction and how regrettable it was

Question 9

(MW) “their skeletons paused mid dance-macabre”

Answer 9

Metaphor and morbid imagery

Reinforces how the soldier’s lives have been wasted

Also that their deaths were unavoidable as a consequence of the commands

Question 10

(MW) “their jaws, those that have them”

Answer 10

Symbolism

Emphasises that not every soldier will have their story told (have a voice)

Question 11

(MW) “the notes they had sung”

Answer 11

musical metaphor

The fallen soldiers are happy to have been given a voice

Question 12

(MW) “absent tongues”

Answer 12

symbolsim

The soldiers have been silenced by death and time