5. (H5e) Things that Make a Soldier Great

5. Things that Make a Soldier Great
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EngelsMiddelbare schoolhavoLeerjaar 5

This lesson contains 14 slides, with interactive quizzes and text slides.

time-iconLesson duration is: 40 min

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5. Things that Make a Soldier Great

Slide 1 - Slide

Let's continue
The Things that Make a Soldier Great
by Edgar A. Guest
(1918)

Slide 2 - Slide

About the author
  • Edgar A. Guest
  • 1881-1959
  • 'The People's Poet'
  • born in England, moved to the US

Slide 3 - Slide

Let's read the text together

Slide 4 - Slide

Look at stanza 2
Discuss in groups and express in your own words: 
What is Guest trying to say here?

Slide 5 - Slide

Answer
It is not the country or the king or the flag that make a soldier want to fight, but it is when his family and/or children are in danger that he wants to fight

Slide 6 - Slide

Which other sentences in the poem give out the same message?

Slide 7 - Mind map

The following sentences:
  • "The golden thread of courage isn't linked to castle dome
But to the spot, where'er it be—the humble spot called home."

  • "He sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call,
And only death can stop him now—he's fighting for them all."

Slide 8 - Slide

In The Soldier, Brooke believes that soldiers fight and die for:
A
Themselves
B
Their country
C
Their families

Slide 9 - Quiz

In The Things that Make a Soldier Great, Guest believes that soldiers die for:
A
Themselves
B
Their country
C
Their families

Slide 10 - Quiz

Notes on the 5 war poems
  1. The Soldier (pro / positive) was written in 1914: beginning of the war --> positive, naïve
  2. In Flanders Fields (1915) is also rather positive, patriotic. It's about death, but also about war heroes.
  3. Dulce et Decorum Est & Anthem for Doomed Youth (anti / negative) were written in 1917: during the war --> more realistic, horrors of the war were out 
  4. Things that Make a Soldier Great (1918) is more about soldiers on a personal level

Slide 11 - Slide

Most Negative
Most Positive
Things that make a soldier Great
In Flanders Fields
Dulce et decorum Est
The Soldier
Anthem for Doomed Youth

Slide 12 - Drag question

What is the difference between Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and John McCrae on the one hand, and Edgar Guest on the other hand?

Slide 13 - Open question

Important difference between the poets
Owen, Brooke and McCrae all took part in the war themselves. Guest never took part in it.

Slide 14 - Slide