One of the most lasting cultural legacies from WWI is its poetry, in the raw emotion and powerful imagery found in these lines shaped by conflict. You’ve likely studied the history of the war in more detail in your various history classes, but for today’s assignment, you will explore the work of the poets who witnessed the war firsthand.
I have a series of questions for you based on the videos, your own research, and a set of poems. Have a google doc open in a separate tab to answer the questions as thoroughly as you can. You can work with a partner on the questions, but you’ll need to do the Step 5 on your own! Include citations for your sources if you use them.
For help with your citations, visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab
STEP 1: Videos
Watch the following videos on the English war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.
Questions:
- The first video mentions that before WWI, war poets were concerned with patriotism and the nobility of fighting and sacrificing for their country. Why did this change? Do you see similar debates regarding art, literature, and entertainment today?
- In the second video (around 3:50), we see a passage that Owen wrote about his poetry. He has no concern for poetry, he says, only war. For him, the job of the poet is to warn and to be truthful. For you, what is the purpose of art or literature or entertainment during wartime?
Step 2: The Poems
Choose five of these poems to read closely (at least 1 from the first four linked here, and at least 1 by Wilfred Owen). Copy down a passage of 2-5 lines from each that you feel best exemplifies the argument or central image of the poem. It could also simply be the passage with the most stirring language. Then answer the questions below.
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson – “Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854) (Not a WWI poem, but a good start for having context of war poetry before WWI)
- Thomas Hardy – “The Man He Killed” (1902)
- Rupert Brooke – “The Soldier” (1914) (video)
- Laurence Binyon – “For the Fallen” (1914)
- John McCrae – “In Flanders Fields” (video)
- 100 Years of Flanders Fields, Guelph Museum Project
- Siegfried Sassoon – “The Death Bed”
- Siegfried Sassoon – “The Poet as Hero”
- Siegfried Sassoon – “Attack” (video)
- Wilfred Owen – “Dulce et Decorum Est” (video)
- Wilfred Owen – “Strange Meeting”
- Wilfred Owen – “Anthem for Doomed Youth” (video)
- Isaac Rosenborg – “Marching”
- Robert Graves – “Two Fusiliers”
- T. E. Hulme – “Trenches: St. Eloi“
- Charlotte Mew – “The Cenotaph“
- Carol Ann Duffy – “Last Post” (video)
- Claude McKay – “If We Must Die” (video)
- Rabindranath Tragore – “Gitanjali 96“
Questions:
- What is the primary difference in tone between the poems of the first set and those of the second set?
- The third set of poems were all written after the war, but take place in different contexts. Choose one, do a quick bit of research into the poet and the poem and write briefly about how you see these later poems demonstrate their influence of earlier WWI poems.
- Which poem do you feel best captures what you know of WW1? Why?
Step 3: Research
Answer the questions for these articles:
- How did he die?
- How did he meet Siegfried Sassoon?
- What did he do before the war?
- Why did he enlist?
- How did his experience with PTSD affect his writing?
Biography of Siegfried Sassoon
- What did he do before the war?
- How did he turn against the war?
- How did he meet Wilfred Owen?
- Why was he considered to be a war hero?
- How did his experience in the war affect his writing?
One Hundred Years of Poetry: The Magazine and War
- According to this article, how did war poetry change over time? Use quotes or other evidence from the text to back up your answer.
- As the last paragraph asks, can art and literature inflame tensions? Bring about peace? Bear witness to atrocities? Inspire change?
Step 4: Final Video
Question:
- After reading and viewing everything so far, what do you think? How have cultural and literary monuments like these poems shaped how we view and understand war (especially WWI)? Use evidence from the poems, videos, and articles to build your answer.
Upload your document with the answers to the questions in steps 1-4 to the assignment in Canvas.
Step 5: World War I Poetry One-Pager
One-Pagers are written and graphic interpretations on a single sheet of paper of a text or set of texts. For this assignment, choose one (or two) of the poems from Step 2 above and create a one-pager of it. It may be a literal or symbolic representation of the poem and should help you visualize the themes or literary devices within the poem.
For examples of One-Pagers, click here!
- Use a standard, blank sheet of paper (8.5″ x 11″, unlined)
- Fill the entire page
- Use as much color as possible!
- All One-Pagers must include the following:
- Author
- Title
- Three excerpts (quotes, lines, passages) from the poem that you find especially meaningful
- Your commentary on each passage (or a single piece of commentary connecting all three)
- Any images, decorations, borders, or thematic designs You’d like to include.
Submit a photo of your One-Pager to the assignment in Canvas.