Mametz Wood Flashcards
Who is the author of Mametz Wood?
Owen Sheers
Summarise the poem
- Persona describes how even now the farmers in France are still finding the remains of soldiers who died on battlefields of WW1 in the earth as they plough
- Remains seem to be near Mametz wood, where a particularly brutal battle that cost many lives, took place
- Narrator references how they were commanded to walk into battle and face the devastating machine guns
- Poem moves to the present to the discovery of the mass grave of soldiers that was just discovered and recounts how they were linked arm in arm and how their mouths hung open as if they were mid song
What are the themes present in the poem?
Wastefulness of war
Nature vs technology
Describe the form and its effect
- Written in tercets } seem a little less robust than a quatrain, maybe hinting at the delicate balance between life, nature and death?
- Third person narrative: creates sense of distance and detachment
- Enjambment reflects slow unearthing and passing of time as pieces are dug up
Describe the structure and its effect
- Shape of poem could be representative of men laying in their grave
- First 3 stanzas focus on ‘years’ after war + how farmers found the fragile remains of the ‘wasted young’, leading to the narrator to reflect on their death at the mercy of the machine guns
- Stanza 4 brings us to present day: ‘even now’ earth is still healing from its horror
- Final 3 stanzas written ‘this morning’ when a mass grave of soldiers is uncovered, reminder that the war is forever present in our history
- Regular 3 line stanzas almost reflect linear pattern of a ploughed field
- At times, line lengths change, w longer lines breaking up the form
What is the impact of the changing line length?
→ disrupted pattern could reflect chits of bone sticking out from the ground
→ + disrupting our attempts to forget the past
Describe the language and its impact
- Tone is muted + understated, making the story more effective
- Language is straightforward and understandable making it seem conversational
- Images of brokenness and fragility such as the symbolism for the ‘bird’s egg’ emphasise the fragility of human life as well as how war can dehumanise those who fight in it
What is the historical context behind the poem?
- Mametz is a village in northern France of which the woodland was the site of the death of 4,000 men from the British army’s
- Welsh Regiment during the course of WW1
- Attack lasted 5 days
Why did Ower Sheers write the poem?
- He felt that the soldiers never had their bravery or sacrifice acknowledged
- It was written as a response to the farmers in the area still finding bones in their fields
Complete the quote
‘The wasted..
…young’
Analyse the quote
‘The wasted young’
→ ‘wasted’ shows author’s blatant disapproval of war
→ human life has been carelessly treated within the war, emphasising dehumanising effects of the war
Complete the quote
‘A chit…
…of a bone’
Analyse the quote
‘A chit of a bone’
→ language of fragility used throughout the stanza
→ ‘chit’ = small note, shows just how much destruction was havoced in this area by the technology to have whole bodies reduced to a ‘chit of a bone’
→ these pieces of bone contain a message about the brutality of war
→ no distinction made between man and nature: now all mixed up together
→ plosive sounds used throughout this stanza ‘bone’ mimic explosions
Complete the quote
‘Broken bird’s..
… egg of a skull’
Analyse the quote
‘Broken bird’s egg of a skull’
→ emphasises the preciousness of a human body
→ ‘egg’ kind of emphasises that they were young as eggs are a symbol of fertility and children
→ distressive imagery emphasised through plosives ‘b’ sound
→ evokes feelings of empathy and sadness in the reader
