2. World War I
• WWI began with the assassination of the
Arch-Duke of Austria by a Bosnian Serb in
Sarajevo.
• Alliances: Austria + Germany
Serbia + Russia + France + Britain
• Germany wished to attack France:
marched through Belgium
3. Alliances
• Britain became involved because of the
alliance with France.
• German advance came to a halt.
Armies dug themselves in: trench warfare.
4. Allies
• UK, France and
Russia
• Germany, Austria-
Hungary, Italy
6. Trenches
• Living conditions were horrible.
• Soldiers stayed in them for weeks,
months on end.
• The trenches filled with water:
feet rotted away, rats thrived.
• First ‘modern’ war: tanks, planes,
chemical warfare
9. Poetry
• To try and make sense of what they
saw, some men turned to poetry.
• Rupert Brooke
• Siegfried Sassoon
• Wilfred Owen
10. Rupert Brooke
• Poet before he went to war.
• Not in the trenches.
• Died of food poisoning on board a ship.
• Patriotic poetry:
“there is some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England”
from ‘The Soldier’
11. Siegfried Sassoon
• He too, had been a
poet before the war
started.
• Very heroic conduct
at the start of the
war.
• Military Cross,
‘Mad Jack’.
12. Does it matter – Siegfried Sassoon
Does it matter?-losing your legs?
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you mind
When others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.
Does it matter?-losing you sight?
There’s such splendid work for the blind;
And people will always be kind,
As you sit on the terrace remembering
And turning your face to the light.
Do they matter-those dreams in the pit?
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won't say that you’re mad;
For they know that you've fought for your country,
And no one will worry a bit.
13. Wilfred Owen
• Voluntarily enlisted
• Shellshocked after
three days in bomb
crater
• Hospital Edinburgh
• Met Sassoon
• Killed 1 week before the
end of the war.
15. Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for those who die as cattle? A
Only the monstrous anger of the guns. B
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle A
Can patter out their hasty orisons. B
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; C
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, D
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; C
And bugles calling for them from sad shires. D
What candles may be held to speed them all? E
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes F
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes. F
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; E
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, G
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. G
16. Anthem for Doomed Youth
• Anthem = a song of praise
(National Anthem)
• The quatrains list sounds of war
as well as sounds of religious services
• But those who died in the war will not
get a traditional service
17. Anthem for doomed youth
• The sestet describes the kind of burial
service they will get.
• No candles, no flowers
but they will be grieved for by family and
friends.
• And at the end: inevitable death
18. Owen Quote
“This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not
yet fit to speak of them. Nor is it about deeds, or lands,
nor anything about glory, honour, might, majesty,
dominion, or power, except War.
Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and
the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.”
