Peace Poems - WW1 KS2 Poetry workbook

Peace Poetry KS2 Workbook Explore the poetry of WW1

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

Contents 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.

1 - 2 Timeline WW1 3 Objects and Images from WW1 4 What was the world like in 1914 5 - 6 “Pro War” Poetry

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

Who’s For The Game by Jessie Pope

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.

The Soldier by Rupert Brook and A Dead Boche by Robert Graves

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

7 - 8 War Sonnets

9 What the trenches looked like 10 Break of Day in the Trenches by Isaac Rosenberg

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

11 - 12 Metaphors and Similes

Ideas Hub Chelmsford Edith Miller: hosts@ideashubchelmsford.org.uk

13 Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

Essex Record Office Valina.Bowman-Burns@essex.gov.uk

14 Invent Your Own Similies

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/

15 Personification 16 The Next War Wilfred Owen 17 Alliteration 18 Onomatopoeia 19 - 22 Write your own poetry

Objects and images from WW1 Left: Brenda the dog collected money with her owner for the British Red Cross in Chelmsford, they walked door to door.

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.

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.

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

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:

3

______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

4

Pro - War Poetry 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.

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)

5

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 muchYet 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.

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.

____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________

6

War Sonnets

Which sonnet is pro war and which sonnet is anti war and how do you know?

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

The Soldier (1914) 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.

Rupert Brooke (1887 - 1915)

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 Wood A certain cure for lust of blood:

7

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.

Robert Graves (1895 - 1985)

__________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ 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 B That 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.

8

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

Barbed wire

Sand bags Parapet Elbow rest

Ammunition

Fire-step Duck boards

9

Dug out

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 poppy To stick behind my ear.

Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew Your cosmopolitan sympathies.

Now you have touched this English hand You will do the same to a German Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure To cross the sleeping green between.

It seems you inwardly grin as you pass Strong 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 eyes At the shrieking iron and flame Hurled 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)

10

Metaphors and Similes Metaphor - 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.

Th be e C he ry ar of d W ar

co

Th sw e d all ark ow ne ed ss us of

ul

d

nig

ht

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

in

fe

ll l

ike

te

ar

s

e th e, m d ga laye he p r t ’s fo at ’s t th ho s W gge

11

Ra

bi

Th th e s wh e vi now ite llag la bl e l y o an ik ke e a ver t.

‘B be ent gg do ar ub s un le, de like rs o ac ld ks ’

ty is m en e re en g. th g re in h ick g wn ug th r a ro ro d e d th an und im h im s D ne As aw pa ht, I s lig ea, s

‘P ar opp e i ies nm w an hos ’s e ve ro ins ots ’

Facts: 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.

12

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 hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And 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 pace Behind 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

13

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: __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________

14

The Next War (1917)

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

Things a human can do:

Bullets

Danced

Poppy

Jumped

Helmet

Running

Doves

Shook my hand

Mud

Looked at me

Barred Wire

Smiled

Sunrise

Laughing

Clouds

Dreaming

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

15

______________________________________________________

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 coughed Shrapnel. 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? __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ List the characteristics or actions that Owen uses in his personification. __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________

16

Onomatopoeia

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

A WW1 Gas Mask. __________________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________

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 Description Onomatopoeia Fire Mud Rain

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

Ice Groaned

__________________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________

Bullets

Grunted Rumbled Thud Sizzling

__________________________________

List as many Onomatopoeia words as you can:_____________________

__________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________

17

18

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.

19

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.

21

_________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________

22