1. Opening Lines Poetry Anthology
Section H
1914-18 War (ii)
This revision guide is intended to support the work you have been doing in
class on the following poems:
Recruiting Katherine Tynan
Joining the Colors Hinkson
The Target Ivor Gurney
The Send-Off Wilfred Owen
Spring Offensive Wilfred Owen
The Bohemians Ivor Gurney
Lamentations Siegfried Sassoon
The Deserter Winifred M. Letts
The Hero Siegfried Sassoon
Falling Leaves Margaret Postgate
In Flander’s Fields Cole
The Seed-Merchant’s John McCray
Son Agnes Grozier
The Parable of the Old Man and the Young Herbertson
Spring in War-Time Wilfred Owen
Perhaps- Edith Nesbit
Reported Missing Vera Brittain
E.A. Mackintosh Anna Gordon Keown
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2. “Recruiting” E.A. Mackintosh
“Recruiting” shows that the reality of war is different to the propaganda
recruitment; the poem contains bitter criticism of the politicians who sent
the soldiers off to war and the journalists who write about it. The poem
comments on the recruitment drive in Britain; taking issue in particular
with posters encouraging young men to sign up to the army. Mackintosh
focuses on the discrepancy between the image of war as presented by the
advertising campaign of the “fat civilians” and the reality of war as
experienced by the young “lads” called up to fight.
STRUCTURE
Constructed of 11 verses, each made up of 4 lines (quatrains) with a
regular rhyme scheme abcb defe ghih …The structure of the poem is
rhythmic this reflects the way they were cajoled into going to war without
giving it proper consideration.
The poem is an obvious attack written from a soldier’s perspective who
has had experienced the reality of war and realized the falsity of their
advertising campaigns.
THINKING POINTS
1. How does the poet use the following techniques to get the point across?
• The four line verse (quatrain)
• Colloquial language
• Rhyme
• Alliteration
2. The poem uses accessible, straightforward language. What does this
suggest about the purpose and audience it was written for?
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3. “Joining the Colors” Katherine Tynan Hinkson
The poem tells of a regiment of soldiers leaving Dublin to fight in France;
written from a female perspective the poem juxtaposes (directly
contrasts) images of the innocent naivety of the young soldiers with
images of death. The poet speaks of the sad realization that the love felt
for these men by the women left at home “cannot save” the soldiers from
their uncertain futures and likely deaths.
THINKING POINTS
1. Compare this poem to “The Send-Off” which is also about men going off
to die.
Look at:
• Settings
• Verse forms
• Standpoint of both poets
• Each poet’s feelings
• Patterns of imagery
• Your own response to the poems
• Use of contrast
“The Target” Ivor Gurney
“The Target” is told from the perspective of a soldier who agonizes over a
man he has killed. The soldier says that his mother lives in fear of his
death, the speaker suggests that it might be better for his mother if he
died so that she might at least find some peace in not having to worry
about him anymore. The soldier then goes on to contemplate the situation
of the soldier that he shot, and remembers that the man he shot is another
mother’s son. The soldier feels that God gives no guidance and does not
seem to care. The speaker wonders who “felt the bullet worst” – he
questions whether it is better to be the soldier shot than the soldier who
did the shooting and has to live with the guilt of taking another’s life. The
poem ends in disillusionment calling the war a “bloody mess indeed”.
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4. “The Send-off” Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owens’s poem, “The Send-Off” was written at Ripon where there
was a huge army camp. The troops in the poem have just come from a
sending-off ceremony of cheering crowds, bells, drums, and flowers given
by strangers; the troops are now being packed into trains for an unknown
destination. From the beginning of the poem the atmosphere is sinister,
the lanes are “darkening” and claustrophobic, the crowds have gone and
the troops are watched only by the “dull” and uninspiring faces of a porter
and lowly tramp. The flowers pinned on the chests of the soldiers in
celebration become for the speaker of the poem the funeral flowers
garlanding the soldiers for the slaughter that awaits them in war. The
departure of the soldiers for war is secret, it is “like wrongs hushed up”,
and the cheering celebration of the hours before becomes a smoke
screen for the harsh solemnity of war.
THINKING POINTS
1. Owens’s choice of words adds to the effect of the imagery. What is
the effect of the oxymoron “grimly gay”?
2. Why does he use a rhetorical question in stanza 7?
3. Owen uses quite an unusual structure in the poem. Three-line
stanzas are followed by two-line stanzas and the rhymes connect
the stanzas. He also uses a combination of long and short lines.
Look closely at the structure. What kind of mood and feeling does it
give to the poem?
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5. “Spring Offensive” Wilfred Owen
In a letter dated 25th April 1917, Wilfred Owen recalls a day in which “we
were rushed up into line. Twice in one day we went over the top, gaining
both our objectives. Our ““A” company led the attack and of course lost a
certain number of men. I had some extraordinary escapes from shells and
bullets”. Owens’s poem “Spring Offensive” is an account of the action, its
prologue and aftermath and the men involved in it. The poem is composed
of six stanzas; each describes a different phase of the attack – the scene,
the pause before the attack, the tension, the attack, the casualties, and
the survivors.
IMAGERY AND LANGUAGE
Image Type of image Effect
“Like and injected simile Emphasizes the dramatic
drug” healing effect of the sun.
“sky burned / With personification Suggests the intensity of the
fury” bombardment – as if they were
being attacked by a vengeful
god.
“like sorrowing arms” simile Perhaps relating to Christ’s
crown of thorns, the brambles
create an image of sacrifice
“like trees unstirred” simile Emphasizes how silently the
men breathe, creates a sense of
man in communion with nature
“like a cold gust” simile The May breeze becomes a cold
gust, emphasizes the manner in
which the men stiffen and brace
themselves in preparation for
battle.
“earth set sudden metaphor The cups are metaphors for the
cups /In thousands for craters left by shells, filling with
their blood” the blood as the men die. A
graphic image of the blood shed
and lives lost.
“surf of bullets” metaphor Creates an image of bullets
being fired in waves.
“hell’s upsurge” Personificatio Suggests that the war has
n created hell on earth.
STRUCTURE
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6. The poem’s structure reflects the different stages of the offensive – 1-sets
the scene, 2-pause before the attack, 3 –tension, 4-attack, 5-casulaties,
and 6-survivors.
The majority of the lines are composed of 10 syllables; the rhythm of the
poem is broken by irregularities in the number of syllables in some of the
lines and by the irregular rhymes. Owen uses rhyming couplets to create
and emphasize tension.
THINKING POINTS
Trace what actually happens to the soldiers by rearranging the following
sentences into the right order.
a. As they attack they are exposed on an open stretch of ground.
b. The soldiers who survive cannot speak of those who died.
c. The soldiers have a chance to rest
d. The enemy opens fire
e. A “Little word” sends them into battle
f. But many soldiers just stare at the place they will attack
g. Many of the soldiers are shot or blown up.
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7. “The Bohemians” Ivor Gurney
A bohemian is someone who is unconventional, rebellious and does not
conform.
The poem discusses the different people who join up to the army satirizing
the punishments the soldiers received for not wearing the correct
uniform. The individuality of the soldiers is erased. The soldiers who
“burnished brasses, earned promotions” - the soldiers who conformed to
the army rules were promoted. However as the poem progresses the
speaker suggests that the soldiers no longer need to worry about
conforming or not conforming as they eventually “died off one by one”: “In
Artois or Picardy they lie – free of useless fashions” – ultimately
conforming proved “useless”.
IMAGERY AND LANGUAGE
Image Type of Effect
image
“Barely escaping Alliteration The poet satirizes the
hanging, indeed hardly exaggeration punishments for not wearing the
able” correct uniform
“others burnished Alliteration Emphasizes the action of
brasses, earned polishing brass as an act that
promotions” “earned promotions”
“While others argued Alliteration The use of alliteration reinforces
of army ways, and the message of these lines – that
wrenched / What little conforming to army ways was
soul they had still soul destroying.
further from shape”
STRUCTURE
“The Bohemians” is written in only two sentences, the first encompassing
14 out of the 15 lines of the poem. The rhythm of the poem is broken up
mid line, creating a sense of the poem as an accumulative list and
producing a casual tone.
THINKING POINTS
1. Why is the conversational and casual tone of the poem deceptive?
2. What kind of individuality is stamped on the bohemians?
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8. Lamentations Siegfried Sassoon
Sassoon’s poem, “Lamentations”, is a funeral song. The speaker of the
poem describes the pain and anguish of a young soldier, who after having
been told of the death of his brother, had to be removed to the guard
room. The speaker hearing the pain of the grieved man entered into the
guard room where the young soldier had broken down. A sergeant looks
on puzzled and patiently at the man half-naked kneeling on the floor. The
guard appears to lack compassion and understanding for the situation of
the grieving man.
The poem establishes a contrast between the reality of war as
experienced by the grieving soldier and the sergeant who has
experienced no personal cost for the war. It is ambiguous as to whether
the poem’s title refers to the pain of the young soldier or laments the lack
of pity and understanding of the unfeeling guard. For the speaker of the
poem, men like the sergeant have lost all “patriotic feeling” since they can
no longer empathies with the pain and suffering of the grieving relatives.
The soldier who has lost his brother is in such despair he would not be
interested in fighting for a country which has effectively killed his brother.
IMAGERY AND LANGUAGE
This poem relies on montage. It is a single scene in the guard room and
one which depicts the violence of grief. This is displayed in the verbs
‘moaned’, ‘shouted’, ’sobbed’, ‘choked’, ‘howled’ and ‘beat’. The use of a
list is employed to show the situation rising in violence and despair. All the
language is familiar and universal to the reader and this helps Sassoon to
establish his perspective. The scene is also reminiscent of a child’s
tantrum and this helps to display the futility of war.
STRUCTURE
The structure of the poem aids the impression it gives of being an eye-
witness account, creating a sense of intimacy with the reader as the
speaker imparts what he has seen.
The use of enjambment in the poem aids flow between lines and
sentences reinforcing the idea that this is a story being recalled from
memory.
THINKING POINTS
1. What are the similarities between “Lamentations” and Sassoon’s
“The Hero”?
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9. “The Deserter” Winifred M. Letts
In the First World War many soldiers suffered from shell shock which was
not generally recognized as a condition at the time. They ran off from the
guns and were shot as deserters.
The speaker of Winifred M. Letts’s poem tells of the fate of a
deserter, the deserter is not named – it could be any soldier. The story of
the deserter is told sympathetically, imagining the fear felt by the soldier
who ran off only to be caught and shot by his own army. The speaker tells
of the deserter’s mother who thinks her son died a hero, serving his
country in battle. The speaker suggests that it is best for the mother not
to know that her son “lies in a deserter’s grave”.
IMAGERY AND LANGUAGE
Image Type of image Effect
“Fear had dogged by personificatio Emphasizes the strong feelings
night and day” n of fear felt by the soldier.
Suggests that Fear has its own
will separate to the will of the
person who experiences it.
“Who can judge him, Rhetoric The speaker suggests that it is
you or I?” not the place of the others to
judge the deserter’s guilt
“was scared as any simile Suggests the vulnerability of the
frightened child” soldier, provokes sympathy
from the reader.
“throbbing heart and Internal rhyme The repetition of sound mimics
sobbing breathe” the repetitious pounding of the
deserter’s heart. It emphasizes
the physical experience of fear
as something that takes over
the body.
“I’ve seen a hare with Simile The comparison to a hare
eyes as wild” emphasizes again the fragility of
the soldier but also suggests the
erratic and unpredictable
manner in which the deserter
ran off
“An English bullet in repetition Suggests the disbelief of the
his heart!” speaker that such killings
should occur
STRUCTURE
Beginning the poem with “There was a man” gives the poem a story like
structure, the man remains nameless suggesting that this could be the
fate of any man.
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10. The rhyme scheme of the poem is based on repetition of whole words and
phrases – “turned and ran away”, “to die”, “wild”, “death”, “when the
dawn was grey”, “An English bullet in his heart”, “strife”, all of the
repeated phrases serve to emphasizes the speaker’s sympathy for the
deserter.
In the closing lines of the poem the poet rhymes “gave” with “grave”
linking the image of the mother giving her son to war with an image of
death.
THINKING POINTS
1. Winifred Letts feels a sense of outrage and injustice at the
treatment of the deserter. What are the main ways she communicates
these feelings?
2. Why do you think the army lied to the families of deserters about the
way in which they died? Do you think it was right or wrong?
“The Hero” Siegfried Sassoon
The speaker of the poem tells of the fate of a young soldier named Jack
and the moment that his mother received a letter from the colonel
informing her of her son’s death. The mother reacts to the eloquent words
of the letter with both pride and grief; the letter was ironic as the speaker
continues by revealing Jack as a coward who in reality wanted nothing
more than to return home. He is referred to as “cold-footed” (nervous), a
“useless swine” about whose death no one cared. The poem builds
sympathy for both the mother and Jack; it also criticizes Jack’s comrades
and the manner in which nervous soldiers were condemned. The
speaker’s tone suggests the disgust he feels for way in which the soldier
was treated and thought of. Like the mother in “The Deserter”, Jack’s
mother will never no the truth and pain (both physical and psychological)
of her son’s death.
THINKING POINTS
1. Is Sassoon on the side of the Brother Officer or is he criticizing him?
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11. “The Falling Leaves” Margaret Postgate Cole
The actual falling leaves in this poem symbolize the falling soldiers who
are dying in the battlefield. The poet uses what we call in poetry an
extended metaphor. The leaves are the soldiers. The persona is riding a
horse in the autumn time. She observes the leaves turning brown and
falling from the trees and her mind is cast to the young men fighting and
literally falling to their deaths at war.
The poem is written in one sentence as one long stanza consisting of
twelve lines. This is because it is a single thought which has consumed
her there and then.
Usually when leaves die in nature they are swept away by the wind, but
these leaves are falling like snowflakes from the trees on a ‘still afternoon’
and the speaker finds it odd. This prompts her to consider how the
soldiers die ‘slain by no wind or age or pestilence’.
Glossary
Thence- and then, for that reason
Gallant- brave, chivalrous, stately (representative of the country)
Pestilence- fatal epidemic disease
“In Flanders Fields” John McCraye
Sickened by what he had seen during the Boer War, John McCrae
nevertheless signed up in August 1914, and headed for France with
his horse, Bonfire, in tow. He would have found few opportunities
for riding in that hell on earth. Knee deep in mud and freezing water,
men's feet rotted where they stood, waiting for the next attack of
gas to insinuate its way down the trenches, or the signal to go "over
the top", often into direct machine gun fire.
McCrae wrote "In Flanders Fields" the day after presiding at the funeral of
a friend and former student. McCrae was to number among the
9,000,000 fatalities that the war would claim.
Poppy seed will lie in the ground for years if the soil is undisturbed. That
churned up cemetery known as the Western Front provided the ideal
medium for masses of poppies to blanket the graves. By the 1920s, Legion
Branches were selling the paper flowers to: provide assistance to needy
ex-servicemen and their families, to build housing for seniors, and support
programmes like meals-on-wheels, drop-in centres, etc. Buy and wear a
poppy. It is simple, painless way to recognize contributions and sacrifices
barely imaginable to us.
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12. Like ‘The Falling Leaves’, the poem relies heavily on visual imagery.
“The Seed-Merchant’s Son” Agnes Grozier Herbertson
The poet chose to make the subject of her poem the son of someone who
grows and sells seeds. Herbertson probably chose this occupation
because seeds signify new life and the possibility of growth and renewal.
The poem gives many facts about the young soldier who died, this
emphasizes the youthfulness of the boy – his “bright, bright eyes” and
“cheeks all red”; he is “fair and healthy and long of limb”. The seed
merchant is described as being old to have such a young son. The poet
sympathizes with the man and the fact that his family line will now and with
him and unlike the seeds will not be renewed. The speaker questions
what we can say to a man in his situation. The answer to her question
comes from her observations of the seed-merchant himself as she
observes him looking at the seeds in his hand and the realization that life
will go on. The seed-merchant manages to keep his faith in God as he
thanks God – he thought that life was over but realizes it is not when he
looks at the seed.
THINKING POINTS
1. How does the structure of the poem reflect the themes of youth and
age?
2. Why do you think the poet chose a two line stanza in rhyming
couplets?
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13. “The Parable of the Old Man and the Young” Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen chooses to base his poem on the biblical story of Abraham
and his son Isaac. In the bible when Abraham has demonstrated his
obedience, God sends a ram for Abraham to sacrifice rather than his son.
The bible story is meant to emphasize the mercy of God. Abraham is
considered the father of the Jewish people and also is important in Islam.
The story parallels God’s later sacrifice of his own son Jesus Christ, to
redeem the sins of the world.
Owen reworks the traditional parable setting his story in the trenches of
World War One rather than in the Holy Land. Owens’s poem is a sinister
reworking of the parable in which Abraham becomes representative of the
British government and instead of sacrificing the Ram of Pride chooses to
slay his son and “half the seed of Europe”. The failure of the Angel to
persuade Abraham to slay the Ram suggests that the war could have been
prevented had proper negotiations taken place. The speaker of the poem
feels that the government has gone against the teachings of God.
THINKING POINTS
1. Why do you think Owen chose this particular parable of Abraham and
Isaac to parody in his poem?
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14. “Spring in War-Time” Edith Nesbitt
The female speaker of the poem addresses a lost lover, she lame1nts the
passing of the seasons and the fact that she shall no longer walks down
“lover’s lane” with her lover. Spring, which holds connotations of new
life, only serves to remind the speaker of the poem of what she has lost
and will not experience. She remembers the previous spring when she
and her lover were, like the birds, ready to build a nest (home). The
comparison of the lovers to the nesting birds emphasizes the lost
opportunities of the women left behind. “Lover’s lane” named so because
it was often frequented by lovers is evocative of the marital tradition of
showering newly weds in confetti as the blossoming flowers scatter their
petals on the road.
THINKING POINTS
1. Nesbit has chosen a ballad form for the poem. Why is this
appropriate?
“Perhaps –“Vera Brittain
Written in five quatrains the speaker reflects on the beauty of nature
around her which she can no longer appreciate. The speaker uses nature
to demonstrate the passing of time and her feelings of grief for her lost
lover.
The speaker questions whether she will ever be able to appreciate the
beauty of nature again after experiencing such loss. The poem is both
personal and universal in its address, the capitalization of “Yon” is both
the speaker’s named lover and the name of any loved one lost in the war.
The ending is poignant and optimistic at the same time and reflects the
British fashion of resilience common during the period. Time is a healer
and life does go on. Nature aids the process of grief as it a constant
phenomenon and continues to live on and provide familiar structure for
those coping with loss.
Five quatrains are used with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef ghgh ijij.
This reflects the monotony of the seasons and the steady rhythm of
change.
The poem would have been appreciated by many young women at the time
since such a vast number of men died during the war, and as a
consequence the birth rate dropped significantly and many women lived
their lives as spinsters or widows.
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15. ‘Reported Missing’ by Anna Gordon Keown
This is a Shakespearian sonnet since it has the structure of abba cddc
effe gg. Sonnets were traditionally about love. It is ambiguous as to
whether the speaker in this poem is the soldier’s mother or lover. It is
moving because the speaker is in denial and will soon have to accept the
death of the missing soldier. The poem can be divided into two sections –
the first 12 lines express anger at the manner in which others so readily
assume that the soldier is dead, the final rhyming lines express her
certainty that he will he is not dead and will come again. The final lines
are poignant as the reader realizes that one day the speaker will have to
accept that the soldier is not returning to her.
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