The Send Off

Definitions Siding-shed: part of a railway system to park off-duty trains Wreath: flowers held in a circle, usually to commemorate death Porter: someone paid to move luggage Tramp: a vagrant or beggar Mock: to scoff at or ridicule

Story Form: Poem – eight stanzas, abaab  marching rhythm Purpose: Tone: impersonal and cold Setting: Characters: Title: Where do you normally see “send-offs”? Send-offs can either be gay “bon voyages” to those going on a journey—those heroes leaving for war. At the time, common themes were excitement and positive thoughts. How does this poem compare?

Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way To the siding-shed, And lined the train with faces grimly gay. Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray As men's are, dead. Technique: word choice, wreath Effect: even at a time of celebration, the men are decorated with signed of death. This imagery is reinforced the with word ‘dead.’ Literal translation: sang their way… Boys marching to a tune to their departure on the train. Technique: Word choice/adverb, grimly gay Effect: Is an oxymoron—two terms that contradict each other. Alerts audience to the forced happiness of the men. It’s an ominous sign. Technique: grammar, comma Effect: creates a pause and thus emphasis on the word “dead”

Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp Stood staring hard, Sorry to miss them from the upland camp. Technique: word choice, ‘dull’ Effect: there is no cheering crowd—just “dull” observers/passers-by. Reinforces the mournful tone of the poem.

Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp Winked to the guard Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp Winked to the guard. So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went. They were not ours. We never heard to which front these were sent. Technique: connotation/simile Effect: suggests that something wrong will happen—it shouldn’t be made public. Personification: lamp Effect: suggests the lamp knows something that they do not—another ominous sign. Technique: impersonal pronoun, “they” Effect: Continues the cold tone towards the soldiers. Owen is illustrating the reality of a send-off, which is cold and unfeeling. If there were hearts and emotions involved, they wouldn’t be leaving.

Nor there if they yet mock what women meant Who gave them flowers Nor there if they yet mock what women meant Who gave them flowers. Shall they return to beatings of great bells In wild trainloads? A few, a few, too few for drums and yells, May creep back, silent, to still village wells Up half-known roads. Technique: imagery Effect: like most of Owen’s poems, he suggests that the soldiers are not to blame, but the people at home are. The women who gave them the flowers that are meant for funerals. Technique: word choice, creep Effect: Technique: foreshadowing Effect: the poem guesses or hints at the soldier’s eventual deaths Technique: imagery, still village Effect:

Commentary Owen’s response to conscription—boys being forced to go to the war, since so many soldiers had already died. Between July and November 1916, the British casualties exceeded 400,000. To avoid public outcry, reinforcements were sent out quietly in the night. “They”—by keeping them without any individual characteristics, Owen intensifies the idea that they are faceless and anonymous, numbers only.