World War 1 poetry

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 4

World War 1 poetry

February 2023

World War 1 - Programme

• 3 or 4 lessons in class about this topic 
• Interactive Phileas Fogg workshop on Wednesday 15 February and Friday 24 February 2023
  
• WW1 poetry test
  
  

• Lesson 1: The War explained + Poem 1 + Words in Progress
• Lesson 2: early WWI (pro-war) poetry
• Lesson 3 + 4: Later poets 

Goal

After the lessons you will have a basic knowledge of WWI and its poets and have become familiar with language in context.

The First World War
(try in English)

When did the First World War start?

1. 1912
2. 1914
3. 1916
4. 1918

Who was Franz Ferdinand?

1. An Austro-Hungarian archduke
2. A Russian tsar
3. An English king
4. A French-Servian pope

Who was Austria-Hungary friends with?

1. Russia
2. Montenegro
3. France
4. Germany

Why did Germany invade Belgium?

1. Belgium had a very strong army
2. To get around France's defences
3. To invade England through Belgium
4. Because Germany had nothing better to do

Why did Britain declare war on Germany?

1. Because Germany tried to invade England first
2. Because Britain wanted to capture Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II
3. Because Britain didn't like that Germany attacked neutral Belgium
4. Because Britain wanted to get to Russia through Germany

Why did the USA get involved?

1. The USA had a strong army
2. The president loved to meddle in wars
3. The USA was attacked by German soldiers
4. The president had heard of the war and wanted to make peace

What was wrong with the French soldiers' uniform?

1. It was too bright, so they were easily spotted by the German soldiers
2. Blue and red were the colours of the Russian uniform
3. Blue and red were a very strange colour combination
4. The German army had a similar uniform

What is meant by 'No Man's Land'?

1. An uninhabited area (where no one lives)
2. A song by Eric Bogle
3. The area between trench lines and armies
4. An area invaded by an opposing army

Some facts

• more than 55 million men from 30 countries fought in WW1
• nearly 10 million died
• more than 21 million were injured
• civilian casualties: +/- 1 million as a result of attacks, +/- as a result of disease and famine

Do you know what this is and what it stands for?

Poppy Day

Remembrance Day

Armistice Day 

11 November

Why the Poppy? (1)

In late 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders were once again ripped open as World War One raged through Europe's heart. Once the conflict was over the poppy was one of the only plants to grow on the otherwise barren battlefields.

Why the Poppy? (2)

The significance of the poppy as a lasting memorial symbol to the fallen was realised by the Canadian surgeon John McCrae in his poem In Flanders Fields. The poppy came to represent the immeasurable sacrifice made by his comrades and quickly became a lasting memorial to those who died in World War One and later conflicts. It was adopted by The Royal British Legion as the symbol for their Poppy Appeal, in aid of those serving in the British Armed Forces, after its formation in 1921.

Pro-war poets and early poets of the First World War:

Jessie Pope & Rupert Brooke

Poem 1: Who's for the Game? by Jessie Pope (1868 - 1941)
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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.

Poem 2: The Soldier (1914) by Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)

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If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That 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.