A Learning Object used to help students develop a greater understanding of poetry from WWI; its form, structure, style and technique.

1. YEAR 11 ENGLISH
World War I Poetry

2. Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)
Owen enlisted in the Artists‟ Rifles in 1915. On 4th June 1916 Owen was commissioned as a second lieutenant
with the Manchester Regiment. In the last days of 1916 he was posted to France. In March, he suffered
concussion and spent time in hospital. In April he returned to the front again, only to be caught up in fierce
fighting and lay semi-conscious in a shell crater with the dismembered remains of a friend; he was diagnosed
as suffering from shell-shock and evacuated to England. On the 4th of November 1918 Owen was killed in
action.
Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967)
Siegfried joined the Sussex Yeomanry on 4th August 1914, the day that England declared war. In March 1916
Siegfried was finally able to secure a front-line placement. He displayed courage and calm under fire,
receiving a Military Cross. In February 1918 Sassoon was back in France supporting allied forces. On 13th June
while returning to the trenches from a patrol in No Man's Land he was accidentally mistaken for a German, and
was shot in the head. This event ended his direct experience of the war
Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)
Brooke's war experience consisted of one day of limited military action with the Hood Battalion during the
evacuation of Antwerp. Brooke died in the Aegean Sea (from blood poisoning) on his way to battle at Gallipoli
and was buried on the Island of Skyros.
Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)
Gurney tried to enlist at the outbreak of war, but was rejected due to poor eyesight (he wore glasses ). He
eventually joined on the 9th February, 1915, as a private with the 2nd/5th Gloucesters. He was injured in early
1917, and later during the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Ypres) he was caught in a gas attack and invalided
home
Robert Graves (1895–1985)
Robert Graves was born in 1895 in Wimbledon. Grave enlisted when war was declared in August 1914. On 20
July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme Graves was struck by a shell fragment. He was taken to a dressing-
station, and next morning was reported to have died. He survived however damage to his nerves and general
health meant that his return to France in 1917 was not for long, and he spent the remainder of the war in
various posts in England and Ireland.

3. William Owen
Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, --
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

4. William Owen
preface from ”Wilfred Owen: War Poems and Others” Edited
by Dominic Hibberd and William Hovey
This book is not about heroes. English They may be to the next.
Poetry is not yet fit to speak All the poet can do to-day is to warn.
of them. Nor is it about deeds or lands, That is why the true Poets must be
nor anything about glory, honour, truthful.
dominion or power, If I thought the letter of this book would
except War. last,
I might have used proper names; but if
Above all, this book is not concerned the spirit of it survives Prussia, --
with Poetry. my ambition and those names will be
The subject of it is War, and the pity of content; for they will have
War. achieved themselves fresher fields than
The Poetry is in the pity. Flanders.
Yet these elegies are not to this
generation, Note. -- This Preface was found, in an
This is in no sense consolatory. unfinished condition, among Wilfred
Owen's papers.

5. Siegfried Sassoon
Base Details
If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,
I'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You'd see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
Reading the Roll of Honour. "Poor young
chap,"
I'd say--"I used to know his father well;
Yes, we've lost heavily in this last scrap."
And when the war is done and youth stone
dead,
I'd toddle safely home and die--in bed.

6. Rupert Brooke
The Soldier
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England
given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

7. Ivor Gurney
Pain
Pain, pain continual; pain unending;
Hard even to the roughest, but to those
Hungry for beauty...Not the wisest knows,
Nor most pitiful-hearted, what the wending
Of one hour's way meant. Grey monotony lending
Weight to the grey skies, grey mud where goes
An army of grey bedrenched scarecrows in rows
Careless at last of cruellest Fate-sending.
Seeing the pitiful eyes of men foredone,
Or horses shot, too tired merely to stir,
Dying in shell-holes both, slain by the mud.
Men broken, shrieking even to hear a gun.---
Till pain grinds down, or lethargy numbs her,
The amazed heart cries angrily out on God.

8. Robert Graves
The Dead Fox Hunter
We found the little captain at the head;
His men lay well-aligned.
We touched his hand - stone cold -and he was dead,
And they, all dead behind,
Had never reached their goal, but they died well;
They charged in line, and in the same line fell.
They well-known rosy colours of his face
Were almost lost in grey.
We saw that, dying and in hopeless case,
For others' sake that day
He'd smothered all rebellious groans: in death
His fingers were tight clenched between his teeth.
For those who live uprightly and die true
Heaven has no bars or locks,
And serves all taste...or what's for him to do
Up there, but hunt the fox?
Angelic choirs? No, Justice must provide
For one who rose straight and in hunting died.
So if Heaven had no Hunt before he came,
Why, it must find one now:
If any shirk and doubt they know the game,
There's one to teach them how:
And the whole host of Seraphim complete
Must jog in scarlet to his opening Meet.

9. Poetry
These are the tools that a poet utilises:
Form
Structure
Style
Techniques

10. Poetic Form
This is simply the set of rules by which the poem is
structured.
Blank Verse: Blank Verse is constructed with unrhymed/blank Iambic
Pentameters.
Sonnet: There are many different types. Most common is an Italian
sonnet consisting on an octave and a sestet. The English/Shakespearian
sonnet often finished with a rhyming couplet
Quatrain, Cinquain, Sestet and Octave : depending on the number of
lines (4, 5, 6, 8)
Ballad: The basic ballad form is iambic heptameter in sestet or six line
stanzas. The second, fourth and sixth lines rhyming.

11. Meter
Meter is the way of forming a line of poetry so that it has
regular and equal units of rhythm.
Iambic...........u / ......... the Foot
Trochee ....... / u ........ Foot ing
Anapest........ u u /........on the Foot
Dactyl........../ u u ........Foot fall ing
Spondee....... / / ........ In Sensed
Pyrric ..........u u........ be gin

12. Poetic Structure
Lines and
Stanzas
Rhyme
Scheme

13. Lines and Stanzas
•Poetry is written in lines
Lines
NOT sentences
•Poetry is written in Stanzas
Stanzas
or Verses NOT Paragraphs
•Sometimes a poem will be
Single written as a single entity
Entities and not be divided into a
stanza

14. Rhyme Scheme
This is the pattern that signifies the arrangement of the
rhyme in a poem.
'They'
The Bishop tells us: 'When the boys come back
A
'They will not be the same; for they'll have fought B
'In a just cause: they lead the last attack A
'On Anti-Christ; their comrades' blood has bought B
'New right to breed an honourable race, C
'They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.' C
'We're none of us the same!' the boys reply. D
'For George lost both his legs; and Bill's stone blind; E
'Poor Jim's shot through the lungs and like to die; D
'And Bert's gone syphilitic: you'll not find E
'A chap who's served that hasn't found some change. F
' And the Bishop said: 'The ways of God are strange!'
F
Siegfried Sassoon

15. Poetic Style
Style in poetry involves the method which a poet uses to
convey meaning, tone, and emotion in his/her poem.
Meaning
Tone
Imagery

16. Meaning
Poets use a range of techniques to convey
meaning.
• Form: How is the poem
Meaning
written/structured?
• Content: what is the Poem
about?
• How is Language used?
Form + Content + Language = Meaning

17. Tone
The tone of the poem will reveal the poet’s
subjective views and attitudes.
• Create Mood and Atmosphere.
This is achieved through word
Tone
choice, rhythm and sounds of
words.
• Describing Tone: friendly, sharp,
sarcastic, ironic, angry,
humorous, condescending

18. Imagery
Imagery, often involving the senses, conjures
up word pictures.
• These affect us emotionally and
Imagery
intellectually.
• Poetry may use metaphors, similes or
personification for comparisons.
• The use of sound devices such as
alliteration, assonance and
onomatopoeia enhance imagery.

19. Poetic Technique
Devices used in poems to create effect
Simile: A simile is a direct comparison that always contains the words as or like. “He is as
wealthy as Bill Gates”
Metaphor: A metaphor is a comparison without the use of as or like. “He is a Bill Gates”
Personification: Gives human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas. “The clouds
looked down and wept on the drought-stricken earth.”
Allusion: This is either a direct or an indirect referral to a particular aspect. “Milton‟s epic
poem, „Paradise Lost‟, deals with the biblical themes of the Temptation and the Fall of
Man”.
Alliteration: Is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. “Baby,
bounces the ball.”

20. Poetic Technique
Devices used in poems to create effect
Antithesis: Compares and contradicts ideas or statements within a sentence.
“Don‟t underestimate him; he‟s a mouse in stature, a lion in strength”.
Oxymoron: Place two seemingly contradictory words next to each other. “The
mother waved her son off to war with painful pride”.
Paradox: A seemingly absurd or contradictory statement which, when analysed, is
found to be true. “You will kill him with your kindness”.
Irony: Implies the opposite of what is said. “I can‟t wait for my detention on
Wednesday afternoon”.
Sarcasm: Like Irony, is it used to highlight, expose or ridicule human, social or
political weaknesses or stupidities.

21. Poetic Technique
Devices used in poems to create effect
Hyperbole: An over-exaggeration, not meant to be taken literally. “The
teacher complained that she had hundreds of interruptions that day.”
Euphemism: Expresses an unpleasant or uncomfortable situation in a more
sensitive, kind and tactful manner. “He passed away”.
Pun: A clever play on words, alike in sound but different in meaning.
“Cricket Captain stumped!”
Rhetorical Question: A question that expects no answer. “Why are we
allowing stress to become an invisible enemy?”
Synecdoche: In a synecdoche, a part is used for a whole, or a whole is
used for a part. “Australia won the cricket”.

22. Analytical Questions
Students complete an analytical essay on
one of the questions below:
Choose a poet and a selection of his poetry (2
to 4 poems), and discuss how he writes about
WWI and his experiences in it. What message
does he try to get across to the reader? What
feelings does he have in regards to war and
fighting?
Take examples of War Poetry that were written
at various stages of the War. Evaluate the
extent to which the examples chosen reflect the
poets' changing attitudes towards the War, and
in turn, the extent to which the poems reflect
the course of the War.

23. Writing an Analytical Essay
STAGE 1
STAGE 2
Select your
question. STAGE 3
Select the Poet
and/or Poetry STAGE 4
that you will be Annotate
writing about. your poems Outline, the
STAGE 5
for structure, main ideas for
style, each Begin writing.
technique paragraph. A Ensure that
and overall paragraph for each paragraph
each has a topic
meaning. sentence, clear
poet/poem
would be a ideas and that
good idea. they are
supported with
evidence.

24. Poetry: Marking Rubric
Knowledge and •Develop ideas that show your understanding of poetry
Understanding and the way it was created.
Analysis •Develop a point of view, connecting ideas from the
poetry to your chosen question. Use technical language
and refer to form, structure, style and technique.
Application •Support your views/ideas with references and analysis
form the poems you have selected.
Communication •Write a well planned and well structured assignment
that answers the question you have chosen.