5. Things that Make a Soldier Great

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• Leerjaar 5

5. Things that Make a Soldier Great

Before we start

Let's see what you remember from the last poem

Anthem for Doomed Youth

anthem = lied, lijflied

doomed = gedoemd zijn (onvermijdelijk dat iets slecht gaat)

Why are the youth doomed according to Owen?

Answer:

The youth is doomed because they have to go to war and will inevitably die.

In line 1 Owen compares the soldiers to cattle (vee), he uses a:

1. metaphor
2. simile

In Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen comments on:

1. The gas attacks in the war
2. The traditions used in the funerals of the soldiers
3. The poppies on the battlefield

Owen thinks these funeral traditions are:

1. beautiful
2. unnecessary
3. inappropriate

Let's continue

The Things that Make a Soldier Great

by Edgar A. Guest

(1918)

About the author

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

Let's read the text together

What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?

Rhyme scheme

AABBCC DDEEFF GGHHII JJKKLL

Look at stanza 2

Discuss in groups and express in your own words: 

What is Guest trying to say here?

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

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

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."

In The Soldier, Brooke believes that soldiers fight and die for:

1. Themselves
2. Their country
3. Their families

In The Things that Make a Soldier Great, Guest believes that soldiers die for:

1. Themselves
2. Their country
3. Their families

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

Most Negative

Most Positive

Things that make a soldier Great

In Flanders Fields

Dulce et decorum Est

The Soldier

Anthem for Doomed Youth

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

Important difference between the poets

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