TSS/Mametz Wood

Mametz Wood (15 Marker War)

The theme of war is evident in sheer’s poem ‘Mametz wood’ which in 2014 he presented in a series on the BBC. This poem belongs to the collection; Skirrid Hillwhich. The poem is explored through third person narrative, ‘they had sung’ from the perspective of Sheers. . The form of the poem is in 7 tetrains that imitates plough lines in the field where the bodies rest. Furthermore, the lack of rhyme scheme portrays that the placing of the bodies in the poem had no pattern or correlation

Sheers instinctively displays the passage of time, ‘for years afterwards farmers found them,’ to highlight how the events of the battle of Somme have been buried and forgotten, the alliteration further emphasises how only recently there remains have been rediscovered. The line, ‘wasted young’ heavily contrasts with, ‘The Soldier’ as it portrays a cynical/anti-war view whereas the ‘The soldier’ instead emits a tone of Patriotism for one to die for one’s country, ‘that is forever England’.

Later on, in the second tetrain, a metaphor is utilised, ‘A chit of…