Mametz Wood Flashcards
Poet?
Owen Sheers
About?
Begins with farmers in France (present day) finding bones in their fields when they plough the land. They are the bones of soldiers from World War One.
The poem references the way they died before returning to the farmers. The poem is honouring the dead.
Form:
The poem is written in Tercets (3-Line stanza’s)
Third person
Long sentences and enjambment
Structure:
Thoughtful tone and Slow pace throughout emphasise the lasting effects of war
Q - Fragile bones
‘the china plate of a shoulder blade’
‘the blown and broken bird’s egg of a skull’
Q - War causes unnatural young deaths
‘wasted young’
‘foreign body’
Q - End of poem, gentle imagery creates a sense of peace
‘this unearthing slipped from their absent tongues’
Q - End of poem, gentle imagery creates a sense of peace
‘this unearthing slipped from their absent tongues’
The discovering gives them remembrance and a voice that they never had.
Q - Power of nature and contrast to violence
‘nesting machine guns’
Q - Human insignificance to nature
‘even now the earth stands sentinel’
