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MAMETZ WOOD &
DULCE ET
GRADE 9- POETRY ANALYSIS (CONFLICT)

DEVSTATING EFFECTS OF WAR
❖ Sheers conveys the fragility of life, whereas Owens portrays the sheer ugliness of conflict and the human

consequence
...

❖ “Beggars”- Subsistence and worthlessness- Have little value/sacrifices meaningless
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Expresses how lives of the soldiers can easily be damaged but not fixed
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Stark contrast “Old beggars”/”Boys”, permanently been stained by conflict,
irreparable damage continuing for the rest of their lives
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“Began to
trudge”- Connotes lethargy and monosyllabic phrase, illustrates lack of enthusiasm
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❖ Euphemism of death- “towards their distant rest”- only purpose is to die
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❖ Contrastingly

an oxymoron and another metaphor is used to express the “Broken bird’s egg of a
skull”
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Conflict easily diminishes
hope
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Metaphor paints imagery of “chipped skull”- Consonance in “chit and
china” adds a sense of realism, mirrors machine gun sounds
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Consonance “cursed and
coughing”- reflects bitterness and regret
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❖ Owen’s

title

anger towards war, shows unfavourable conditions to emphasise shock in reader- tarnishes

UNNATURAL CONCEPTS OF WAR
❖ Personification-

Owens was a credited officer in the army, it still meant that he viewed the new
techniques of war- “gas” or incendiary warfare as wrong
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❖ Links

with horse- Horses sleep standing up (“Shod”)
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“Coughing”, actions of soldiers, impression that war is like a
disease by intoxicating humanity and slowing down the process of life- Caesura after “asleep;”verbs link with slowness such as “trudge”
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❖ Sheers

uses simile and personification- “like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the
skin”- “foreign” bodies don’t belong there, no resting place
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“Obscene”- War is

offensive to humanity so does not belong here; Credited officer who agreed with war, describes
intolerable disrespect and cruelty endured by them
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Immerses reader with aggression, conflict has present day impacts
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More
bodies are to be revealed, occurrence will continue in the future affecting future generations
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❖ Similarly-

Owens- Past continuous tense- “guttering, chocking, drowning and haunting”emphasises pain experienced- Semantic field- powerless to help
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First person “my helpless sight”shares readers experiences, “drowning man” in our head- Powerless to relieve
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Guilt continues- Psychological pain

❖ Enjambment-

“Mid dance macabre” between “In boots”- links two stanzas together, suggests
conflict has impacted present day life by linking into our lives

RHYME
❖ Both

poets also use rhyme however the impact they achieve is expressed in two different ways
...
Sheers is illustrating that their recognition of their sacrifice has given them peace, offering a
sense of redemption and justice for the dead
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❖ This is reinforced using imagery to illustrate how their

“socketed heads tilted back and dropped open”,
which could suggest how their voices and plea to be recognised by humanity have finally be heard
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❖ Nonetheless

in Dulce, there is also a strict alternate rhyming pattern of ABAB such as “sacks and
backs”
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However, it could also represent the repressed lives of the soldiers, continuously being
structured
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❖ The use of “children” may have been used as the word associates with potential life and vulnerability which

should be protected by their elders
...

Such an idea is expressed at the beginning of Mametz Wood, as Sheers uses an oxymoron to express the
“wasted young”, the juxtaposition of these words may suggest how children should not be involved with
conflict, though it could also convey the anger of sheers, viewing war to have no progression to humanity
...


❖ This

is slightly like Mametz wood as Sheers uses a metaphor to describe the “relic of a finger”; the word
“relic” could reflect the sacred ancient value of the soldiers and how their sacrifices should be respected
today
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Both poems
explore negative perception towards war- raise awareness



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