1. Mametz Wood
A POEM BY OWEN SHEERS

2. Introduction
Mametz Wood was the scene of fierce fighting, one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War.
The name comes from how the soldiers were ordered to take (cover) Mametz Wood, the largest area of trees on the battlefield.
Although this poem is not a personal account of war, Sheers has created quite a moving description of the war, and how its reminders are still present after many many years later.

3. Why has it been written?
Owen Sheers visited a site of a WW1 battlefield, which then inspired him to write this touching poem. He was struck by how leftovers of the battle were gradually rising to the ground.
Owen Sheers grew up in wales, and the soldiers that had fought in the battle were also welsh, which shows that the history of Wales has formed quite a large impact on his development as a poet.
Other poets who had actively fought in the war had created poems that were a lot more personal, but “Mametz Wood” highlights the fact that eighty-five years later reminders of soldiers' deaths were still very much present and fresh.

4. About the poem itself
The poem is very prosaic – straight forward, not beating around the bush – which shows that Sheers clearly wants to display the sufferings and hardships of the Welsh who fought on the battlefield.
It explains why his language is quite blatant
Though it’s a poem, it does not have a rhyming scheme going on.
It’s as if Sheers is giving an eye witness or a statement to the reader and making them more aware of what went on and what the Welsh soldiers experienced.
He is trying to highlight the fact that although they succeeded, their bravery was not acknowledged.

5. Annotation Of The Poem
In the opening lines of Mametz wood, Sheers mentions how the battlefield has gone back to being farmland and how years later the farmers find remains of the soldiers.
The soldiers who were fighting on the battlefield were young men and had not yet even reached adulthood.
Young lives have been wasted.
It is almost as if the place is trying to get rid of anything that is linked with the war, and trying to return back to its original state.

6.  A metaphor with the words ‘’a china plate’’ is used to describe a shoulder blade. Sheers is trying to signify how fragile and precious human life is (the bones of the dead), and yet here they were, lying on the ground.
A part of a bone lying around.
Someone's finger is evident on the ground. Imagine the horror of seeing fingers lying around. Also the word “relic” suggests that it has no use now.
A skull is compared to a fragile bird’s egg to emphasise its vulnerability.

7. Describing the colours of the remains (bones) of the soldiers that are pushing through the surface of the earth.
How the soldiers were ordered to walk towards the wood, (unaware of the guns that were waiting to fire on them)
Sheers describes the machine guns as “nesting” in the wood, once again using an image related to birds, almost as though the guns belonged among the trees.

8. Earth stands guard, afraid of another brutal battle in which the earth is demolished and there is nothing left of it.
Sheers returns to the present time
Sentinel - guard, lookout.
creating the impression that the field is almost ‘on guard’.
Going back to wounded memories, the idea that it cannot let go of the memories of the war.
As though the bits of bone are unfamiliar and need to be pushed up and removed from the soil. 
Possibly insinuating that the earth doesn’t want to carry the burden of the remains and wants to set them free.

9. It is a moving/emotional image showing how the men were physically connected, dying together.
Reminds us the lifeless skeletons were once alive.
The words “broken mosaic” means that their remains are now broken.

10. Sheers mentions the soldiers' boots that have had a longer life than their
owners.
He goes on to describe the skulls of the soldiers, although not all of them were intact (whole). Not many even had their jaws, creating a disturbing image.

11. The open or missing jaws of the skeletons appear to be singing, but that the sound of their voices was not heard, metaphorically, until the grave was discovered years later.
As if to say, they had no voice for many years but have finally gained one years and years later.

12. Attitudes
Sheers highlights the injustice the war had brought, in other words the injustice of history. The poem is trying to offer some kind of justice to the deceased, by trying to give the dead a voice, one they have lacked.
Sheers reflects on how the events of that week in 1916 have been buried and forgotten. The bits of bone that are turned up seem just the same as old bits of china – curious leftovers of history.
Sheers could have simply retold the historical events of the battle. By approaching the subject in this slightly strange way, though, Sheers highlights the injustice of history, and manages to stir emotions among
many readers.