Year 4 war poetry

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

H4

War Poetry

(First World War)

After today's lesson you will be able to: 

• Understand the context of War Poetry
• Tell a bit about a day in the trenches
• Identify poetic devices

What was life like in the trenches?

Why do you think
soldiers wrote poems?

Which poem do you prefer?

Rupert Brooke: The Soldier

Wilfred Owen: Dulce et Decorum Est

What are Stylistic Devices? 

A stylistic device (or rhetorical device) is the use of any of a variety of techniques to give an a text a more interesting meaning, idea, or feeling.

Stylistic devices are important in both writing and speech since they add uniqueness to the text by providing clarity, emphasis and freshness of expression. 

stylistic devices

• metaphor = word that refers to something else (The whole world is a stage)
• simile = comparison/as/like (March goes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb)
• personification = ascribing human traits to an object (the sun smiled on a field of flowers)
• oxymoron = combination words with opposite meanings (unbiased opinion)
• assonance: repeating a vowel sound ( True, I do like Sue)
• alliteration= words beginning with the same letter (Betty bought a bit of butter)
• hyperbole= A description that is exaggerated for emphasis. (I could eat a horse)
• onomatopea= words that sound like their meaning (She dived with a splash)
• rhyme= identical sounds at the end of words (hickory, dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock)
• connotation= a phrase that evoke emotion ( floats with ease)

The Soldier - Rupert Brooke

1. Read  the poem 

2. Try to work out the literal meaning line by line

3. Can you identify a structure?

4. Does the poem rhyme? How?

5. Identify any poetic devices. What is the effect of these devices?

Wilfred Owen: Dulce et decorum est

1. Read the poem.

2. Work out the literal meaning line by line. What is the tone?

3. What does the title / last line mean? 

4. Can you identify a structure?

5. Does the poem rhyme? How?

6. Identify any poetic devices. What is the effect of these devices?

Today you learned to:

• Understand the context of War Poetry
•  Understand why poets wrote in different perspectives about the war 
• Identify poetic devices