This lesson contains 23 slides, with interactive quizzes and text slides.
Lesson duration is: 40 min
Items in this lesson
6. Things that Make a Soldier Great
Slide 1 - Slide
Before we start
Let's see what you remember from the last poem
Slide 2 - Slide
Anthem for Doomed Youth
anthem = lied, lijflied
doomed = gedoemd zijn (onvermijdelijk dat iets slecht gaat)
Slide 3 - Slide
Why are the youth doomed according to Owen?
Slide 4 - Open question
Answer:
The youth is doomed because they have to go to war and will inevitably die.
Slide 5 - Slide
In line 1 Owen compares the soldiers to cattle (vee), he uses a:
A
metaphor
B
simile
Slide 6 - Quiz
In Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen comments on:
A
The gas attacks in the war
B
The traditions used in the funerals of the soldiers
C
The poppies on the battlefield
Slide 7 - Quiz
Owen thinks these funeral traditions are:
A
beautiful
B
unnecessary
C
inappropriate
Slide 8 - Quiz
Let's continue
The Things that Make a Soldier Great
by Edgar A. Guest
(1918)
Slide 9 - Slide
About the author
Edgar A. Guest
1881-1959
'The People's Poet'
born in England, moved to the US
Slide 10 - Slide
Let's read the text together
Slide 11 - Slide
What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
Slide 12 - Open question
Rhyme scheme
AABBCC DDEEFF GGHHII JJKKLL
Slide 13 - Slide
Look at stanza 2
Discuss in groups and express in your own words:
What is Guest trying to say here?
Slide 14 - Slide
Answer
It is not the country or the king or the flag that make a soldier want to fight, but it is when his family and/or children are in danger that he wants to fight
Slide 15 - Slide
Which other sentences in the poem give out the same message?
Slide 16 - Mind map
The following sentences:
"The golden thread of courage isn't linked to castle dome
But to the spot, where'er it be—the humble spot called home."
"He sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call,
And only death can stop him now—he's fighting for them all."
Slide 17 - Slide
In The Soldier, Brooke believes that soldiers fight and die for:
A
Themselves
B
Their country
C
Their families
Slide 18 - Quiz
In The Things that Make a Soldier Great, Guest believes that soldiers die for:
A
Themselves
B
Their country
C
Their families
Slide 19 - Quiz
Notes on the 5 war poems
The Soldier (pro / positive) was written in 1914: beginning of the war --> positive, naïve
In Flanders Fields(1915) is also rather positive, patriotic. It's about death, but also about war heroes.
Dulce et Decorum Est & Anthem for Doomed Youth(anti / negative) were written in 1917: during the war --> more realistic, horrors of the war were out
Things that Make a Soldier Great (1918) is more about soldiers on a personal level
Slide 20 - Slide
Most Negative
Most Positive
Things that make a soldier Great
In Flanders Fields
Dulce et decorum Est
The Soldier
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Slide 21 - Drag question
What is the difference between Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and John McCrae on the one hand, and Edgar Guest on the other hand?
Slide 22 - Open question
Important difference between the poets
Owen, Brooke and McCrae all took part in the war themselves. Guest never took part in it.