Mametz Wood Flashcards
Key quotes in Mametz Wood
-‘For years afterwards’
-‘China plate’
-‘The earth stands sentinel’
-‘Socketed heads tilted back at an angle’
-‘their absent tongues’
-‘For years afterwards’ Mam W
The horrors of war still affect us
‘China plate’ Mam W
Soldiers and humans generally are vulnerable and fragile.
-‘The earth stands sentinel’ Mam W
-Personification of earth shows that the land cannot rest due to the horrors that have unfolded Infront of it.
-‘Socketed heads tilted back at an angle’ Mam W
-Brutally visualises the moment the men were shot and screams of pain.
-‘Absent tongues’ Mam W
Final words of poem suggests soldiers have finally found a voice. Suggests poem is about justice or redemption of the dead, or the land.
Context of Mametz wood
-Mametz wood was one of the bloodiest battles of WWI.
-The 38th Welsh Division lost 4000 men during attack which lasted 5 days
-The poet Owen Sheers grew up in Wales and wrote the poem as he sympathised their bravery and felt their sacrificed was never acknowledged
Structure in Mametz Wood
-Poems structure is in regular three-line stanza, reflecting the neat linear pattern of a ploughed field. The length does vary sometimes, disruption of this field due to war.
-The first part of the poem focuses on the land itself before the focus shifts to the bones and dead soldiers in the final stanzas. Concluding stanza combines all the elements together.
