2. At the end of this power point presentation,
students should be able to:
Comment on how poets use literary devices to
create images in the reader’s mind
Discuss how the structure of a poem can affect
the meaning.
Show how a poem can tell a story.
3. In your notebook, write down all the words
that you associate with the word…
4. Definition of war poetry –
poetry either produced
during a war or about war.
5. One of the main themes in
War poetry is the futility of
war. Be on the lookout for
this theme in the poems we
will study.
6. When you read a poem, there are a number
of ways you can interpret/analyse it. We
are now going to briefly look at three
different ways to analyse a poem. The
following is a poem by Siegfried Sassoon.
7. Suicide in the Trenches
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
Siegfried Sassoon
1917
8. 1) Focusing on stanza
one, what sort of
images does the poet
try to create? Is the
tone positive or
negative?
The poet will create an image in your head.
What picture is built in your mind?
What descriptive words are used?(adjectives)
Which is the most powerful image in the poem?
Why?
9. The way the poem is laid out
on the page.
Are there gaps in the poem?
How long are the stanza’s? 2) What do you think
the indentation of
What is the rhyme and rhythm
the text
of the poem? represents?
What, if anything, is unusual
about the way the poem is
written?
10. To create images, poets will often
use the following literary devices:
Simile - is a figure of speech
comparing two unlike things,
introduced with the word ‘like’ or 3) Look at the poem as a
‘as’. whole. Are there any
Metaphor - comparisons that show literary devices?
how two things that are not alike in
most ways are similar in one important
way without using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
Personification - giving human traits
(qualities, feelings, action, or
characteristics) to non-living objects.
Alliteration - using the same
consonant sound at the beginning of
several words in close proximity.
11. What reason(s) did the poet have to write
the poem?
4) Who is the poet What do you think
speaking to in the the poem is about?
final stanza? What is
the message? Is the
tone the same as in What was your first
stanza 1? reaction to reading
the poem?
12. Write a brief paragraph answering the
following:
How does the poet feel about war? With
close reference to the poem, support your
answer.
13. What devices can a writer use to paint a
vivid image in our minds?
How does the physical structure of a poem
affect the meaning?
What other things have you learnt, in terms
of ways to analyse a poem?
14. Read the poems in your recommended texts:
Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen and
The man he killed by Thomas Hardy
Analyse the poems and write a personal
response to them.
