Poem contexts/themes

Question 1

What are the first poems responses to?

Answer 1

the outbreak of war, romantic responses of young men in the war, showing their heroism without knowing the realities of war

Question 2

What is the “transitional figure” section of the poems?

Answer 2

a bridge between the naivete of the earlier WW1 poets and the later war experience, deaths start to become a reality

Question 3

What is the third section of poems about?

Answer 3

the political and different moral positions on war, the poems ‘fight’/’argue’ with one another

Question 4

What does the cluster of poems written by soldiers show us?

Answer 4

they define our understanding of conflict, they bring a personal perspective to the war, highlighting the true realities they had to go through

Question 5

What is the last section of poems about?

Answer 5

looking back on the war, reflecting on the losses but also the gains and lessons learnt