Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers The Welsh at Mametz Wood by Christopher Williams (November 1916)

Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers The poem ‘Mametz Wood’ was inspired by a trip to the Somme. Sheers was involved in a documentary film project about two Welsh writers, David Jones and Wyn Griffiths. They served with the 38th Welsh Division and both fought at Mametz Wood (described by Jones in In Parenthesis). While Sheers was in France, a previously unknown grave was uncovered. It contained the bodies of 20 Allied soldiers, hastily buried but with arms interlinked as described in the poem. Sheers has said that when he saw the photograph of the grave, he knew it was an image that would stay with him and that it was a subject he would want to write about. This poem is the result, surfacing some time later, just as, he says, ‘elements of the battle are still surfacing… years later.’

Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers A Dead Boche 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: 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

Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers For years afterwards the farmers found them – the wasted young, turning up under their plough blades as they tended the land back into itself. A chit of bone, the china plate of a shoulder blade, the relic of a finger, the blown and broken bird’s egg of a skull,   all mimicked now in flint, breaking blue in white across this field where they were told to walk, not run, towards the wood and its nesting machine guns. And even now the earth stands sentinel, reaching back into itself for reminders of what happened like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin. This morning, twenty men buried in one long grave, a broken mosaic of bone linked arm in arm, their skeletons paused mid dance-macabre in boots that outlasted them, their socketed heads tilted back at an angle and their jaws, those that have them, dropped open. As if the notes they had sung have only now, with this unearthing, slipped from their absent tongues. Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers The battle of Mametz Wood was a real event that took place in July 1916, part of the First Battle of the Somme. The 38th Welsh Division was trying to take a heavily fortified wooded area on high ground. German forces were well equipped with machine guns and the attacking soldiers had to approach across exposed, upwardly sloping land. The 38th Welsh suffered heavy losses (almost 4000), including some to what is now called ‘friendly fire’.   Dance macabre or ‘Dance of Death’ was a theme of much medieval poetry and art. It depicts a skeleton (Death) leading all ranks of people (from the highest to the lowest) to their graves. It symbolises the inevitability of death for all, and the futility of earthly rank and material possessions. Its appearance in religious imagery was meant to urge viewers to reflect on the state of their souls.

Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers 1. Annotate your poem with different colours to identify the words and phrases that show when things took place. Use: one colour for simple past (usually words ending ‘ed’) a different colour for present tense a third colour for past perfect (verbs that use ‘had’). 2. Compare the time periods covered by stanzas 1–3 and stanzas 5–7. What do you notice? Annotate the poem with your findings. 3. What is the significance of stanza 4. (Hint: look at its meaning and at its position within the poem.) 4. The grammatical form ‘had sung’ means that the singing took place before any of the other events referred to in the poem. What is the effect of mentioning this ‘oldest’ event right at the end of the poem? Annotate the poem with your ideas.

Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers Personification   A comparison between two things in which one thing is said to be the other. Metaphor A comparison between two things in which they are said to be alike – using the word ‘like’ or ‘as’. Simile An inanimate object or abstract concept is described as though it has a human personality or characteristics.

Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers ‘the china plate of a shoulder blade’ metaphor / simile / personification ‘the blown/and broken bird’s egg of a skull’ ‘the earth stands sentinel’ ‘like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin’

Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers 1. Task: Odd One Out For each of the points select the quotation that would not be useful 2. Developing your ideas  For each question on the sheet pick a quotation that does support the point made. Write as much as you can to explain how it helps to create that effect. For higher grade answers you should be aiming to write a lot about a little, so try to explore connotations of the individual words in a quotation.   3. Extension task  What effects are created by the four ‘odd ones out’? Write as much as you can about how each quotation helps achieve the specific effect you have identified.

Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers For years afterwards the farmers found them – the wasted young, turning up under their plough blades as they tended the land back into itself. A chit of bone, the china plate of a shoulder blade, the relic of a finger, the blown and broken bird’s egg of a skull,   all mimicked now in flint, breaking blue in white across this field where they were told to walk, not run, towards the wood and its nesting machine guns. And even now the earth stands sentinel, reaching back into itself for reminders of what happened like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin. This morning, twenty men buried in one long grave, a broken mosaic of bone linked arm in arm, their skeletons paused mid dance-macabre in boots that outlasted them, their socketed heads tilted back at an angle and their jaws, those that have them, dropped open. As if the notes they had sung have only now, with this unearthing, slipped from their absent tongues. Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers