Poetry Anthology - War and Conflict

Question 1

The Soldier Context and Form

By Rupert Brooke

Answer 1

Written by Rupert Brooke, a neo-romantic poet. He was well-educated and travelled often. He served in the navy in WW1, but never made it into battle, dying in 1915 due to an infected mosquito bite.

It is a sonnet to reflect his love for his country.

Question 2

Dulce Et Decorum Est Context and Form

By Wilfred Owen

Answer 2

Written by Wilfred Owen, an anti-war poet who served in WW1. Opposition to propaganda for conscription.

Four stanzas of uneven length. The first fourteen lines depict the situation and events, the last fourteen lines show the consequences. The final four lines are his injunction to the reader.

Question 3

Mametz Wood Context and Form

By Owen Sheers

Answer 3

Written by Owen Sheers, a Welsh poet, born in Fiji. He wrote the poem after visiting the battleground of the Somme.

Regular 3 line stanzas (tercets). Past, present, future. Single stanza followed by a pair of stanzas.

Question 4

The Manhunt Context and Form

By Simon Armitage

Answer 4

Written by Simon Armtage, based on a soldier who was injured in a UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.

series of couplets, mostly rhymed. Sense of fragmentation.

Question 5

A Wife in London Context and Form

By Thomas Hardy

Answer 5

Written by Thomas Hardy, about the Boer war in South Africa over huge gold reserves.

Split into two sections, the tragedy and the irony.

Question 6

The Soldier Key Quotations

By Rupert Brooke

Answer 6

1. ‘Some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.’
2. ‘A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware.’
3. ‘In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.’
4. ‘Breathing English air.’
5. ‘A pulse in the eternal mind.’

Question 7

Dulce Et Decorum Est Key Quotations

By Wilfred Owen

Answer 7

1. ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks.’
2. ‘Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!’
3. ‘Men marched asleep.’
4. ‘The blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs.’
5. ‘The old lie: Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro patria mori.’

Question 8

Mametz Wood Key Quotations

By Owen Sheers

Answer 8

1. ‘For years afterwards the farmers found them.’
2. ‘The wasted young.’
3. ‘Twenty men buried in one grave.’
4. ‘The skeletons paused mid dance-macabre.’
5. ‘Boots that outlasted them.’

Question 9

A Wife in London Key Quotations

By Thomas Hardy

Answer 9

1. ‘He has fallen in the far South Land.’
2. ‘The fog hangs thicker.’
3. ‘Page-full of his hopeful return.’
4. ‘A new love that they would learn.’
5. ‘His hand, whom the worm now knows.’

Question 10

The Manhunt Key Quotations

By Simon Armitage

Answer 10

1. ‘The frozen river which ran through his face.’
2. ‘The damaged porcelain collar bone.’
3. ‘The parachute silk of his punctured lung.’
4. ‘An unexploded mine buried deep in his mind.’
5. ‘Every nerve in his body had tightened and closed.’
6. ‘The foetus of metal beneath his chest.’