1. World War I
Rupert Brooke
and
Wilfred Owen
by Ms.M.Sammut Dimech

2. • On the morning of 28th June 1914
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent
to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was shot
dead as he was being driven in the streets
of Sarajevo.
• His wife also died at the hands of the
assassin, a Bosnian student.

5. • No single incident in modern history has
had such repercussions.
• This assassination at Sarajevo, had
shattering consequences for the world.
• It set in train a sequence of events that led
directly to war on a colossal scale – WWI
• How could a couple of pistol shots in
Sarajevo lead to such a catastrophe?

6. A WEB OF ALLIANCES
• The GREAT POWERS, as the principle
European states were then called, had by
1914 divided themselves into rival armed
camps, each camp bound together by a
complex web of mutual assistance
treaties, in case of attack.

7. • On the one side was the so-called TRIPLE
ALLIANCE.
• The leading member of the Triple Alliance was
Kaiser Wilhelm II’s GERMANY, by any measure
the mightiest force in continental Europe.
• Allied to Germany, by ties of blood as well as
interest, was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with
a comparitively lightweight Italy, completing the
Trio.

9. Against the triple Alliance stood the
TRIPLE ENTENTE:
• RUSSIA
• FRANCE
• BRITAIN
• Both sides had followed the now familiar
path of arming themselves to the teeth in
order to protect themselves against the
other.

11. • Princip, the Bosnian student who
assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
was a member of a terrorist organization
with close links with elements in the
Serbian government.
• Austria-Hungary seized on the incident as
an opportunity to settle scores with Serbia
once and for all.

12. • And it was emboldened to this by virtue of
Kaiser Wilhelm’s full-blooded support.
• The view from Berlin was that Russia
would not intervene to defend its Serbian
friends and fellow Slavs, and by failing to
do so would lose credibility as a Great
Power. But ……

13. Key Dates
• 28 June Archduke Franz Ferdinand
assassinated
• 28 July Austria-Hungary declares war on
Serbia
• 1 August Germany declares war on
Russia
• 3 August Germany declares war on
France and invades Belgium
• 4 August Britain declares war on Germany

15. • In such a seemingly careless way did the
Great Powers of Europe find themselves
at war.
• What sort of war did they expect it to be?
• Military experts and the public at large, on
both sides, were, in general, agreed on
one point: that it would not last long.

16. • There was patriotic frenzy in all European
capitals during those heady days of early
August.
• In the first 18 months of war, more than
two million men were borne to the
recruiting stations on a wave of
nationalistic fervour.

23. This carnival-like
atmosphere infected the
soldiers too- as they
dashed off to the Front.
“It will be over by
Christmas”

26. War Poetry
• The English poetry of WWI can be divided
roughly into two periods.
• At the outbreak, the poets celebrated the
war and shared a simple heroic vision of
noble sacrifice for one’s country

27. • The embodiment of this type of poetry is
Rupert Brooke’s The Soldier.

29. • But the naïve idealism died amid the
appalling carnage of the Battle of the
Somme in 1916.
• The young men who experienced it,
forged a new kind of poetry; poetry that for
the first time faced up to the full horror of
the war. Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum
Est is the best example.

32. Rupert Brooke
1887-1915

34. • He was commissioned in the Royal Naval
Division and in October 1914 took part in
the unsuccessful attempt to relieve
Antwerp – his only limited experience of
military action.
• While back in England for training, he
wrote the five 1914 Sonnets.
• The Soldier is the most famous of all

35. • At the end of February 1915, Brooke
sailed with the Hood Battalion for the
Dardanelles.
• While apparently recovering from
sunstroke and a sore on his lip, he was
suddenly taken seriously ill.
• Diagnosed as suffering from acute blood
poisoning, he was transferred to a French
hospital ship, and died on 23rd April 1915.

36. • He was buried in an olive grove on the
Greek island of Skyros.

38. THE SOLDIER
If I should die; think only this of me:
That there’s a corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.

40. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

41. A dust whom England bore, shaped,
made aware

43. Gave once, her flowers to love

45. her ways to roam,

49. A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers,

51. blest by suns of home

53. And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by
England given;

54. Her sights and sounds;

57. dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends

58. and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven .

69. WILFRED OWEN
1893 - 1918

71. My subject is War, and the pity of War.
The poetry is in the pity.
All a poet can do today is warn.

74. Poisonous Gas in WWI
The first gas attack took place on 22 nd April
1915, when French-Algerian troops were
stationed near the Belgian town of Ypres.
The chlorine gas could be seen as a
greenish-yellow cloud moving towards the
soldiers from the German front.

76. Types of Gases
CHLORINE – severe breathing difficulties
DIPHOSGENE & PHOSGENE – severe
breathing difficulties
TEAR GAS – instant pain in the eyes,
cramp of the eyelids, irritation to nose,
mouth, throat and airways

78. MUSTARD GAS
• The most widely reported and perhaps the
most effective gas of WWI.
• It was introduced by Germany in July
1917.
• It burned and blistered the skin, caused
temporary blindness, and if inhaled,
flooded the lungs and led to death.

79. • It caused internal and external bleeding
and attacked the bronchial tubes.
• This was extremely painful and most
soldiers had to be strapped to their beds.

80. Gas Masks
• The first masks supplied to soldiers were
somewhat makeshift – basic goggles
protected the eyes, and mouth pads made
of flannel or other absorbent materials
were worn over the mouth.
• Chemical-soaked pads neutralized the
gas although soldiers sometimes soaked
them in their own urine.

82. • By the middle of the war more protective
masks were issued to soldiers which
consisted of
• full face masks or goggles and respirators.

89. Dulce et Decorum est
Bent double like old beggars under sacks,

91. Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we
cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our
backs,
And towards our distant rest began to
trudge.

93. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their
boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame;
all blind;

95. Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five – Nines that
dropped behind.

97. - An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;

99. But someone still was yelling out and
stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire and
lime…

101. Dim, through the misty panes and thick
green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him
drowning.

103. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking,
drowning

104. If in some smothering dreams, you too
could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

106. And watch the white eyes writhing in his
face,
His hanging face like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted
lungs,

107. Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent
tongues,-

109. My friend, you would not tell with such
high zest
To children ardent for some desperate
glory,