Anthem for Doomed Youth Conflict Poetry

Lesson Objectives At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

Starter In your workbooks, write a point for list of the things you know about: World War One

Life as a Soldier

Life in the trenches was bad, and only added the way soldiers could die; diseases ran rampant, and there were no antibiotics or medical techniques to properly deal with the types of casualty WW 1 produced. Damp, wet, cold, muddy. The constant threat of bullets flying overhead or bombs dropping nearby. Rats

Infantrymen used bolt-action rifles with dreaded bayonets fixed on the end of the barrel, pistols and hand grenades. Some light machine guns were also used by the infantry. Uniforms were made from wool and the soldier's only protection was a helmet that was more ornamental than protective.

Shell-shock, also known as battle fatigue or combat fatigue and other war related psychological trauma ruined brave souls for life just as badly as the mutilation from wounds and injuries

Mechanization and technology brought forth horrible and deadly new weapons such as submarines, tanks, machine guns, poison gas, very powerful bombs and projectiles, long-range artillery (Big Bertha, i.e.) and airplanes. The art of killing was raised to a new level of efficiency by the introduction of these new weapons.

What sort of conditions did the average soldier face?

Anthem for Doomed Youth Read through and annotate the poem. What are your first impressions of the poem?

Answer the following questions in your workbooks.