Mametz Wood Flashcards
Context
Mamet Wood was one of the bloodiest battles of WW1. As part of the first battle of the Somme in 1916, so,divers of the Welsh division were ordered to take Mametz wood, the largest area of trees in the battlefield.
- the 38th Welsh division lost 4000 men during a 5 day attack.
- Owen sheers grew up in wales and wrote the poem in 2005 as he felt the soldiers bravery and sacrifice was never acknowledged.
Themes
Death
War
Impact of War
Fragility of Human Life
Structure
Regular 3 line stanzas, potentially reflecting the neat linear pattern of a field. At times, length changes with longer lines breaking up the form. Disrupted pattern may reference the ‘chits of bone’ rising out of the ground, disrupting our attempts to forget the last.
Final part of the poem focuses on the land itself before the focus shifts to the bones and dead soldiers in the final stances. The concluding stanza brings all the elements together.
“For years afterwards”
The opening line emphasises how deadly the battle was, as they found remains for “years afterwards”
- temporal imagery.
“the wasted young”
the adjective “wasted” suggests the young soldiers lost their lives before they had really started living.
“as they tended.
the verb “tended” personifies the land, suggesting the farmers tried to care for the wounded surface that was so badly damaged by the war.
“A chit of bone”
“A chit” is a short note. This may indicates that these pieces of bone contain indicate message for us about the brutalities of war.
“the china plate of a shoulder blade”, “relic of a finger” and “broken birds egg of a skull”
the metaphors of “china plate” and “broken birds egg” emphasise how fragile and precious the human body is.
“to walk, not run”
the command “to walk, not run” creates a cynical tone to the poem. Sheers may be saying he feels the soldiers were sent to their deaths.
“stands sentinel”
In stanza four Sheers again personifies the land. The noun “sentinel” links back to soldiers standing watch all night and suggests the land cannot rest because of the horrors it has seen in war. The simile “like a wound working a foreign body” suggests the land is trying to cleanse itself of the damage that has been done.
“This morning”
Here the poem switches to the present tense and makes the tragedy seem more immediate and real for the reader. The horrors of war are still being felt today and remind us of the fatal consequences of conflict.
“linked arm in arm”
The phrase “linked arm in arm” suggests the
soldiers were close as a division and stayed
together as a team, even in death.
“boots that outlasted them”
this highlights the destructive and futile nature of war, whilst emphasising the fragility of life. Gear that the soldiers were supposed to wear to protect them has survived longer than them.
“they had sung”
so,divers often sang to keep spirits up in the darker moments of war. This may also symbolise the noise of the guns being fired, with the noun “song” suggesting this was done almost rhythmically, killing the soldiers.
“absent tongues”
The final stanza creates a haunting tone. The adjective “absent” suggests the men’s voices were lost in battle – they were silenced by their generals and then the machine guns. Only now, “with this unearthing”, is the truth emerging
