mametz wood Flashcards
what is the main theme in mametz wood
war.
what is the poem an elegy for
lost lives.
gives voice to skeletons with ‘absent tongues’ - more than statistics.
what is the main context for mametz wood
episode of world war one - 4000 welsh soldiers killed. it was one of the bloodiest battles.
poor leadership during the battle led to grief and injustice after the event.
for years afterwards the farmers found them
middle of telling a story so trying to stimulate the readers interest.
soldiers no longer have identity - they are passive and powerless.
the wasted young turning up under their plough blades
poignant phase - it has dramatic significance of the soldiers.
destructive imagery symbolising the effects of war.
as they tended the land back into itself
sentimental - contrasts destructive imagery.
a chit of bone the china plate of a shoulder blade
onomatopoeia could be symbolic of the machine guns.
and broken bird egg of a skull
juxtaposes the destructive force of war.
this is delicate and fragile as opposed to violence and aggression.
where is where a sematic field of death in stanza two
‘shoulder blade’ and ‘skull’
across this field where they were told to walk not run
walking is more calm and collective which juxtaposes the commanders lack of respect for vulnerable lives.
reaching back into itself for reminders of what happened
this is personification for protecting the men.
there is a sense of longing and returning to the past.
like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin
suggesting that war is like an illness but is also significant also in the sense that these were welsh boys fighting in a foreign country and the fire that wounded them came from foreign guns.
this morning twenty men buried in one long grave
this breaks the flow and pace of the poem and suggests that the impacts of the war are still felt today.
allows the reader to feel a sense of dramatic reality.
a broken mosaic of bone linked arm in arm
festive and supporting each other through death - comradeship.
however it also symbolises the complete destruction of the soldiers.
what is the significance of stanza five
moving and powerful dramatic climax.
in the boots that outlasted them
constant reference to their breakdown.
and their jaws those that had them dropped open
unsettling imagery emphasising the destruction of war.
as if the notes they had sung
giving soldiers a voice and purpose.
there was strong tradition in welsh culture of singing. people are brought up surrounded by music which is an essential part of their cultural identity. this is ironic given that in death these soldiers lost those very individual identities.
have only now with this unearthing
freedom and release of the soldiers.
slipped from their absent tongues
the ‘absent tongues’ have been silenced for a century but now the dead are finally able to communicate with the living. and they do so with ease - the words ‘slipped’ from them - as if the men and their stories are unified.
what is the use of enjambment and caesura do in this poem
help to create a slow and reflective tone.
what is the use of fragmented tercets in this poem
could represent the remains of soldiers.
