Peace Poetry

A National Lottery Heritage Fund project By the Ideas Hub Chelmsford in partnership with

the Essex Record Office

Explore the poetry of WW1

KS2 Workbook

Forward from the Ideas Hub Chelmsford

This workbook consists of worksheets and resources for young people to use when learning about the history of WW1 Poetry.

It includes images of artifacts which are part of Chelmsford Museums handling collection, which can be booked out for schools to use.

It also contains pictures and archive materials from Essex Records Office.

The production of this workbook was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and we would like to say, Thank You, to everyone to plays the National Lottery for making the Peace Poems project possible.

Workshops on Poetry and WW1 Heritage can be arranged with the following contacts:

Poetry Circle ChelmsfordKelli-Marie Sellwood: thepoetrycircle.chelmsford@gmail.com

Ideas Hub Chelmsford

Edith Miller: hosts@ideashubchelmsford.org.uk

Essex Record OfficeValina.Bowman-Burns@essex.gov.uk

Book out Chelmsford Museums WW1 Handling Collection:01245 605700

View animated films of some of the poetry in this book at: www.ideasfestivalchelmsford.org/peace-poems/

Contents

1 - 2 Timeline WW1

3 Objects and Images from WW1

4 What was the world like in 1914

5 - 6 “Pro War” PoetryWho’s For The Game by Jessie Pope

7 - 8 War SonnetsThe Soldier by Rupert Brook and A Dead Boche by Robert Graves

9 What the trenches looked like

10 Break of Day in the Trenches by Isaac Rosenberg

11 - 12 Metaphors and Similes

13 Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

14 Invent Your Own Similies

15 Personification

16 The Next War Wilfred Owen

17 Alliteration

18 Onomatopoeia

19 - 22 Write your own poetry

Objects and images from WW1

Right: Essex Volunteers Trench Digging 1917 - this would have been a practice dig in Essex, England.

What was the world like in 1914?

To understand War Poetry of WW1, we need to understand it’s importance. There were no televisions, or laptops or mobile phones, most information would have been given through written materials, like posters, books, newspapers. Below is a poster that was put up in Witham.

Did you know that poetry was one of the most popular forms of communication. It was taught in schools and children would have been able to recite many poems from memory. List all the modern technology that you wouldn’t have if you were a child in 1914:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Left: Brenda the dog collected money with her owner for the British Red Cross in Chelmsford, they walked door to door.

Below Left: A drinking vessel made from part of a shell casing, this is known as ‘trench art’.

Below Right: An entrenching spade, these were carried by soldiers to build and repair trenches.

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Pro - War Poetry

Her poems glorified and romanticised war and she is often cited as a propaganda poet, however, she was as everyone else was, unaware of the horror of trench warfare which had never been seen on such a large scale, around19 million people died in World War One.

Jessie Pope, published three books which collected poems on War that had been published in newspapers, they were: Jessie Pope’s War Poems - 1915; More War Poems (1915); Simply Rhymes for stirring Times (1916)

Who’s for the Game (1916)

Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played, The red crashing game of a fight?

Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid? And who thinks he’d rather sit tight?

Who’ll toe the line for the signal to ‘Go!’? Who’ll give his country a hand?

Who wants a turn to himself in the show? And who wants a seat in the stand?

Who knows it won’t be a picnic – not much- Yet eagerly shoulders a gun?

Who would much rather come back with a crutch Than lie low and be out of the fun?

Come along, lads – But you’ll come on all right –

For there’s only one course to pursue, Your country is up to her neck in a fight, And she’s looking and calling for you.

Jessie Pope was a famous female poet of her time. Her work was published in Newspapers and magazines. Everyone would have known of her work and heard her poems. When War broke she wrote many poems encouraging men to join the army.

Answer these questions:

1. What is the game? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Which questions in Pope’s poem will the hero say ‘I will!’ to? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Which questions will make a coward embarrassed? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What is the worst thing that could happen? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. What course of action is Jessie asking you to follow?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Extension: Write as many words as you can which rhyme with War.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Rupert Brooke (1887 - 1915)

The Soldier (1914)

If I should die, think only this of me:That there’s some corner of a foreign fieldThat is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;

A body of England’s, breathing English air,Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

War Sonnets

A Dead Boche (1918)

To you who’d read my songs of War And only hear of blood and fame,

I’ll say (you’ve heard it said before) “War’s Hell! “ and if you doubt the same,

Today I found in Mametz WoodA certain cure for lust of blood:

Where, propped against a shattered trunk, In a great mess of things unclean,

Sat a dead Boche; he scowled and stunk With clothes and face a sodden green,

Big-bellied, spectacled, crop-haired, Dribbling black blood from nose and beard.

Sonnets are a particular poem with a particular structure. Below are two sonnets, both express very different views. Read through them.

Robert Graves (1895 - 1985)

Which sonnet is pro war and which sonnet is anti war and how do you know?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Count the syllables in each line - how many are there? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What is Rupert Brooke referring to when he says ‘songs of War’?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What is a ‘Boche’?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking at the Sonnet, The Soldier (1914), words at the end of each phase rhyme. Can you link the ones that rhyme with each other with a coloured pen. And let’s label them alphabetically. The first Rhyme is A and the second B... as below:

f I should die, think only this of me: A That there’s some corner of a foreign field BThat is for ever England. There shall be A In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; B

Continue labelling the rhyming words in both poems, it helps to read the words out loud. If there are words you don’t understand, look them up in the dictionary.

Now choose four lines in either poem and create a drawing which shows what the poet is writing about in the box below, or create a bigger drawing on a separate sheet.

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What the trenches looked like:Break of Day in the Trenches (1916)

The darkness crumbles away.It is the same old druid Time as ever,

Only a live thing leaps my hand,A queer sardonic rat,

As I pull the parapet’s poppyTo stick behind my ear.

Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knewYour cosmopolitan sympathies.

Now you have touched this English handYou will do the same to a German

Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasureTo cross the sleeping green between.

It seems you inwardly grin as you passStrong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,

Less chanced than you for life,Bonds to the whims of murder,

Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,The torn fields of France.

What do you see in our eyesAt the shrieking iron and flameHurled through still heavens?

What quaver—what heart aghast?Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins

Drop, and are ever dropping;But mine in my ear is safe—

Just a little white with the dust.

Isaac Rosenberg (1890 - 1918)

Barbed wire

ParapetElbowrest

Ammunition

Sand bags

Dug outDuck boards

Fire-step

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Metaphors and SimilesMetaphor - A metaphor helps a writer make a point by comparing two things; here the writer compares tears and a river; this creates a image in the readers head: E.G. His tears were a river flowing down his cheeks.

Simile - A simile also helps a writer make a point through comparing two things, the only difference is the use of the words ‘as’ or ‘like’. E.G. His tears were flowing down his cheeks like a river.

Below in the poppy shapes are both metaphors and similes about the trenches colour in the metaphors red and the similes in Blue.

‘Poppies whose roots

are in man’s veins’

‘Bent double, like old

beggars under sacks’

Rain fell like tearsFacts: Did you know, red poppies are a sign of remembrance and white poppies are a sign of peace. In France, the cornflower is used as a sign of remembrance, it is a Blue Flower with many petals.

Dim through the misty

panes and thick green

light, As under a green

sea, I saw him drowning.

Who’s for the game, the

biggest that’s played

The Cry of War could

be heard

The darkness of night

swallowed us

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The snow lay over

the village like a

white blanket.

Dulce et Decorum Est (1920)*

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hootsOf gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumblingFitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumblingAnd flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could paceBehind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918)Notes: The Latin phrase and title of the poem is from the Roman poet Horace, it means: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”*this poem was written during WW1 and published in 1920

Invent your own Similes

Finish these sentences off then create some of your own.

As happy as a_______________________________________________

As scared as a______________________________________________

She swan like a______________________________________________

The snow fell like a___________________________________________

The blossom was as beautiful as a_______________________________

He was as scared a___________________________________________

Now invent some similes of your own:

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Personification

Personification is when the writer gives non-human subjects human traits or characteristics.

Below are Objects and Human Actions or Characteristics, match them up and then create sentences. Top Tip, there are no wrong answers!

Objects

Bullets

Poppy

Helmet

Doves

Mud

Barred Wire

Sunrise

Clouds

Example, personification sentence:“The bullets high pitch laugh travelled through the air”

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

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Danced

Jumped

Running

Shook my hand

Looked at me

Smiled

Laughing

Dreaming

The Next War (1917)

War’s a joke for me and you,While we know such dreams are true.

- Siegfried Sassoon

Out there, we’ve walked quite friendly up to Death,-Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland,-

Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.We’ve sniffed the green thick odour of his breath,-

Our eyes wept, but our courage didn’t writhe.He’s spat at us with bullets and he’s coughedShrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft,

We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.

Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.

No soldier’s paid to kick against His powers.We laughed, -knowing that better men would come,And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags

He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.

Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918)

What is it that Owen has personified in this poem?

__________________________________________________________

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List the characteristics or actions that Owen uses in his personification.

__________________________________________________________

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Things a human can do:

AlliterationAlliteration is when two words begin with the same letter or sound. For ex-ample, Angry Animals or Knowing nothing. Below are images or War Time objects, write a sentence which uses alliteration for each one.

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A WW1 Gas Mask.

Helmet with bullet holes, this was most probably used for target practice.

Bullets

Onomatopoeia

Description OnomatopoeiaFire

Mud

Rain

Ice

Groaned

Grunted

Rumbled

Thud

Sizzling

Onomatopoeia is when a word imitates its sound, e.g. A bomb goes boom

Read the description below and then write an onomatopoeia for each one; Find a description for the onomatopoeia listed below.

Extension: Write a sentence for each onomatopoeia and its description

List as many Onomatopoeia words as you can:_____________________

__________________________________________________________

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Write your own poems

WW1 affected people from many different Countries and from all walks of life.

These people were Mothers, Sons, Daughters, and Fathers.

Imagine a person, list their attributes; What do they like? Where are they from? How old are they? Were they directly involved in the war or not?

Now write a poem to express their feelings and thoughts about World War One.

Maybe use a portrait on the right as a starting point.

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Poetry Space

Use this space to experiment with your own poetry and illustrate your poems. You can start with a mind-map or use the space it to note down research.