Mametz Wood

Question 1

Point 1 - The poem suggests that the earth is healing after the war

Answer 1

• ‘For years afterwards’ - Showing the time passing
• ‘Tended the land back into itself’ - Farmers are healing the land where the battle occurred
• ‘Like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin’ - Suggests healing
• ‘With this unearthing, slipped from their absent tongues’ - Now that we are uncovering the ground we can finally understand their experiences and allow them to heal

Question 2

Point 2 - The poem has a calm and regretful tone suggesting the fragility of the soldiers

Answer 2

‘The wasted young’ - the soldiers had so much more to live for and it was wasted
‘Relic of a finger’ and ‘broken bird’s egg’ - This suggests the fragility of the soldiers
‘The China plate of a shoulder blade’ - the fragility of the soldiers similar to China
‘They had sung’ - describes the suffering

Question 3

Point 3 - there is a slightly angry tone towards the war

Answer 3

‘Were told to walk not run’ - The anger towards the officers who controlled to soldiers in a way that caused them to die
‘Twenty men buried in one long grave’ - suggesting the sheer amount of death from the war
‘Wasted young’ - their lives were cut short
‘Boots that outlasted them’ - they died so quickly that even their cheap boots survived longer than them. Bitter irony

Question 4

Context

Answer 4

He wasn’t a soldier himself
He was interested in the war so he is described as a war poet
He was Welsh
Mametz Wood is a place in France. It was the site of two incredible blood baths
Huge numbers of men died
It was written in 2005

Question 5

Techniques

Answer 5

irony, simile, images of fragility