The Sentryby Wilfred Owen

LIFE EXPECTATION:Life expectation for officers at the front was about 5 months in 1914: about 10 months in 1918.For every officer killed 20 men were killed.Average British Casualties a Month:

OFFICERS ALL RANKS1914 900 18,4501915 925 19,0001916 2,154 44,0001917 2,766 56,8001918 3,680 75,500At the BATTLE OF THE SOMMEon July 1 1916, the British lost 15 men killed and 25 men wounded A MINUTE for 24 HOURS.

“This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them.Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, might, majesty, domination, or power, except war.Above all I am not concerned with poetry.My subject is War and the pity of War.The poetry is in the pity.”

Wilfred Owen(1893-1918)poet, patriot, soldier, pacifist

EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER BY WILFRED OWEN TO HIS MOTHER, 4 FEBRUARY 1917I have no mind to describe all the horrors of this last Tour. But it was almost wusser than the first, because in this place my Platoon had no Dug-Outs, but had to lie in the snow under the deadly wind. By day it was impossible to stand up or even crawl about because we were behind only a little ridge screening us from the Bosches’ periscope.We have five Tommy’s cookers between the platoon, but they did not suffice to melt the ice in the water-cans. So we suffered cruelly from thirst.The marvel is that we didn’t all die of cold. As a matter of fact, only one of my party actually froze to death before he could be got back, but I am not able to tell how many have ended in hospital.

I had no real casualties from shelling, though for ten minutes every hour whizz-bangs fell a few yards short of us. Showers of soil rained on us, but no fragments of shell could find us.

I had lost my gloves in a dug-out, but I found a mitten on the Field; I had my Trench Coat (without lining but with a jerkin underneath.) My feet ached until they ache no more, and so they temporarily died. I was kept warm by the ardour of Life within me. I forgot hunger in the hunger for life. The intensity of your love reached me and kept me living. I thought of you and Mary without a break all the time. I cannot say I felt any fear. We were all half-crazed by the buffeting of the High Explosives. I think the most unpleasant reflection that weighed on me was the impossibility of getting back any wounded, a total impossibility all day, and frightfully difficult by night

We were marooned on a frozen desert.There is not a sign of life on the horizon and a thousand signs of death.Not a blade of grass, not an insect; once or twice a day the shadow of a big hawk, scenting carrion.I suppose I an endure cold, and fatigue, and the face-to-face death as well as another; but extra for me there is the universal pervasion of Ugliness. Hideous landscapes, vile noises, foul language and nothing but foul, even from one’s own mouth (for all are devil-ridden), everything unnatural, broken, blasted; the distortion of the dead, whose unburiable bodies sit outside the dug-outs all day, all night, the most execrable sights on earth. In poetry we call them the most glorious. But to sit with them all day, all night .. and a week later to come back and find them still sitting there, in motionless groups, THAT is what saps the “soldierly spirit”….

The Sentry by Wilfred Owen

• WW1

• An old Boche dug-out

• shelled continuously

• smells

• sounds

• sensations

• death

Sounds!

• ONOMATOPOEIA• give as many

examples as you can of onomatopoeia e.g. slush, guttering

• Select 3 of these and explain why they are effective in conjuring up sounds and images.

This is how you should set your work out:

“hammered” suggests the force of the bombs and how the blows are continuous.

“whizz-bangs “ is an effective description of the high pitched scream of an approaching shell, followed by the loud blast of the explosion

“slush” conveys the freezing temperature of the trenches which are flooded, and the sound of the men trying to wade through it as it reaches sometimes to their waists

Sounds!• ALLITERATION• give as many examples as

you can of alliteration from the poem e.g. ‘and gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell’.

• Select 3 of these and explain why they are effective.

“Through the dense din” suggests the mass of different sounds that fill the air so that it is packed with noise.

“And choked the steps too thick with clay to climb.”

Through alliteration here we get the impression of the sucking sound of the mud as it clings to the men’s boots.

Sounds help us to imagine the atmosphere of the trenches and the conditions the men had to suffer. In this case freezing slush makes the trench hazardous:

Sensations

• Incredibly realistic

• descriptive language

• what it smelt like

• what it looked like

• what it felt like

• e.g. ‘the air that remained stank old and sour’ and the soldiers ‘bled and spewed’

• select 3 examples of this type of language - explain why they paint such a strong picture

Word- choiceExplain what each of these words means and

why you think it has been used:

o “corpses” (line 10)

o “herded” (line 11)

o “dredged” (line17)

o “wretches” (line 27)

o “spewed” (line27)

“wretches” are poor scraps of people, beggars or madmen might be described this way. These men do not seem like the proud, fit young men who had marched off to war.

“corpses” are dead bodies. Owen uses this word to shock us. It’s hard to imagine the sour smell of men who had lived there for months, but it is shocking to think that there may be dead bodies in the dugout and therefore the smell of decaying flesh too.

“herded” is a word used to describe animals. It suggests the men are crowded together in fear – or about to be slaughtered!

“Dredged” suggests dragging something up from the seabed – so it an appropriate term for the way they have to scramble about under the slush and mud to pull the sentry up for air.

“spewed” – being sick is not a very poetic word nor a beautiful image. It conveys the reality of the suffering. Think about what might be making them spew.

“Oh sir, my eyes – I’m blind - I’m blind - I’m blind!”

1. Why do you think Owen puts direct speech into the poem?

2. What does the repetition help you understand about the sentry?

Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids’

1. What technique has been used here?

2. Why is this an effective comparison? Use the pictures opposite to help.

Pictures from Yahoo images

Owen makes several important comments about his own reactions to this incident. In each case comment on what they tell you about his feelings.

• “Watch my dreams still; but I forgot him there / In posting Next for duty” (Line 23-24)

• “I try not to remember these things now.” (line 29)

• “’I see your lights!’ But ours had long died out.” (line36)

Purpose/Theme

• Why did Wilfred Owen write this poem?

• What is his message?

• Try to go beyond ‘War is bad’.

• It was supposed to be "The War to End All Wars."

"We're not making a sacrifice.Jesus, you've seen this war.We are the sacrifice."