Mametz Wood (B)

Question 1

Explain the story of ‘Mametz Wood’

Answer 1

The poem describes how French farmers find skeletons of soldiers who were killed in WW1 while ploughing their fields. The memories of the soldiers remain in the soil. The poem switches between describing the past with the discoveries of the present. When discovered the skeletons have a voice and can tell the story of the war.

Question 2

Explain the context of ‘Mametz Wood’

Answer 2

Mametz Wood (1916) was the scene of fighting during the battle of Somme. The Welsh were ordered to take Mametz Wood, thinking it would take a few hours, it lasted 5 days. 600 died and the Welsh succeeded, but their bravery was never really acknowledged.

Question 3

Explain the message of ‘Mametz Wood’

Answer 3

• The futility of war and the waste of young lives.
• We all return to nature, regardless of rank
• The importance of remembrance

Question 4

Explain the structure of ‘Mametz Wood’

Answer 4

• Structure is uneven, reflects ploughed fields and bones
• The stanzas alternate between the land and the soldiers; the last stanza combines both with the singing skulls
• Sounds like a hymn to the dead and builds to singing at the end

Question 5

Mametz Wood Quote;
‘For years afterwards the farmers found them
The wasted young’

Answer 5

• Genuine tenderness and care in how the farmers ‘found them’
• The dead reveal themselves gradually
• Futility of war is emphasised with the phrase ‘the wasted young’

Question 6

Mametz Wood Quote;
‘the blown
and broken bird’s egg of a skull’

Answer 6

• Metaphor emphasises the fragility of life and the soldier’s bones
• Suggestion of new life cut short.
• ‘blown’ and ‘broken’ reflect the violence and brutality of war

Question 7

Mametz Wood Quote;
‘where they were told to walk, not run’

Answer 7

• The soldiers became easy targets, reflecting the obedience of the soldiers and hubris of the generals
• The soldiers were almost sacrificed

Question 8

Mametz Wood Quote;
‘like a wound working up a foreign body to the surface of the skin’

Answer 8

• This metaphor suggests that the earth wants the soldiers to be remembered, and so pushed them to the surface.
• The metaphor also suggests that their deaths, and the war, inflicted a ‘wound’ on the land.

Question 9

Mametz Wood Quote;
‘their skeletons paused mid dance-macabre’

Answer 9

• This metaphor, as the Dance Macabre does, symbolises the inevitability of death for all, and the futility of earthly rank and material possessions
• The soldiers become frozen in a work of art

Question 10

Mametz Wood Quote;
‘with this unearthing
slipped from their absent tongues’

Answer 10

• Final metaphor gives the soldiers back their voice.
• They are able to tell stories and speak their truth
• There is a shared celebration of their lives through the song and they are united in death