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War Poems to engage 15 year olds...

72 replies

Beetroot · 10/04/2008 10:31

The more visual and dramatic the better

Any ideas?

OP posts:
Beetroot · 10/04/2008 11:26

fantastic stuff

love the charing cross picture - maybe they can send me a ohoto or post card of it

OP posts:
NorthernLurker · 10/04/2008 11:37

1917 was obviously a very bad year for Tansley

Beetroot · 10/04/2008 12:01

yes

OP posts:
SquonkTheBeerGuru · 10/04/2008 12:05

Dd1 (14) read quite a bit of WWI poetry (mainly Wilfred Owen, but some others as well) when she found out the date that his mother received the telegram to say he had died. She thought it was dreadfully sad that while the rest of the country was celebrating the end of the war, she was grieving.

Perhaps telling them a bit about the poets' lives and engaging them in that may make them want to read their work...

Bink · 10/04/2008 12:14

MB - yes that is a Great one.

I live next door to Peter Porter (his flat is through our kitchen wall) & see him in the street all the time and have never dared say Hello.

Beetroot · 10/04/2008 13:14

talk to him Bink - he must have some great stories

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Blandmum · 10/04/2008 13:15

Bink, if you ever do say hello, please tell him that 'Your Attention Please' scared me shit less as a teenager, and is simply one of the most memorable poems that I have ever read.

So cold, so relentlessly practical [shudder]

PrimulaVeris · 10/04/2008 13:28

Anything, anything by Owen & Sassoon. The war poets were my set poems from GCSE, they made a lifelong impression on me and I still read them. Anthem for Doomed Youth = the best.

Fifteen is the perfect age.

Beetroot · 10/04/2008 13:52

is there noting about iraq to compare with owen/sassoon

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Bink · 10/04/2008 14:14

Re Iraq - I don't know.
If WWI is too, mmm, antiquated, for your 15 yos, what about Vietnam-era? Has various parallels w/ Iraq of course.

Beetroot · 10/04/2008 14:20

yes Vietnam would be good - so that we can compare

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Bink · 10/04/2008 14:24

This looks like an ideal guide to what there is - I think 15yos would really take to a "Vietnam Blues" kind of approach.

From that page, the names that jump out are James Dickey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Denise Levertov - worth seeing what there is of theirs available online.

Bink · 10/04/2008 14:30

This - Denise Levertov is very good. But not dramatic: anti-dramatic - and therefore good.

Might be too subtle for teenagers?

(I might pair it with a haiku or two, by the way. Plus something about the cliché of "over by Christmas".)

Beetroot · 10/04/2008 14:50

this is for drama not english btw

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Beetroot · 10/04/2008 14:51

bink thanks for those

have also ordered poster form imperial war museum

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Bink · 10/04/2008 14:53

ah - missed that bit!
So a bit of verse drama, or poem using dialogue, would fit the bill?

... will have a further think ...

Bink · 10/04/2008 15:05

I'm cheating by looking at online resources - but this would seem like a brilliant one (and it's about Iraq). Masses of dramatic potential.

In fact will also paste it in:

The War Works Hard
by Dunya Mikhail
Translated by Elizabeth Winslow

How magnificent the war is!

How eager

and efficient!

Early in the morning

it wakes up the sirens

and dispatches ambulances

to various places

swings corpses through the air

rolls stretchers to the wounded

summons rain

from the eyes of mothers

digs into the earth

dislodging many things

from under the ruins...

Some are lifeless and glistening

others are pale and still throbbing...

It produces the most questions

in the minds of children

entertains the gods

by shooting fireworks and missiles

into the sky

sows mines in the fields

and reaps punctures and blisters

urges families to emigrate

stands beside the clergymen

as they curse the devil

(poor devil, he remains

with one hand in the searing fire)...

The war continues working, day and night.

It inspires tyrants

to deliver long speeches

awards medals to generals

and themes to poets

it contributes to the industry

of artificial limbs

provides food for flies

adds pages to the history books

achieves equality

between killer and killed

teaches lovers to write letters

accustoms young women to waiting

fills the newspapers

with articles and pictures

builds new houses

for the orphans

invigorates the coffin makers

gives grave diggers

a pat on the back

and paints a smile on the leader's face.

It works with unparalleled diligence!

Yet no one gives it

a word of praise.

lottiejenkins · 10/04/2008 15:18

Definetly anything by Wilfred Owen... one of the reasons my ds had that name was after him, twas very sad, he was injured and chose to go back to the front line to replace Sassoon who had been injured.. he was killed a week before Armistice Day.

SmugColditz · 10/04/2008 15:27

Dulce And Decorum Est

Has stayed with me for 12 years, and everyone I know who studied it remembers.

Also (yes) do show them the last episode of Blackadder, as they go over the edge. It's truly heartbreaking, because these are people we know, we know Blackadder, poor old Darling, Baldrick, and that buffon George, and it can help bring some of the emotion into the idea of watching your friends die.

SmugColditz · 10/04/2008 15:29

www.warpoetry.co.uk/

Bink · 10/04/2008 15:40

And because I cannot keep away - presumably you've seen the war poetry selection on the UK version of Poets.Org? - the Edwin Brock, again, is particularly, ideally, dramatic - but is not completely contemporary.

Back to the WWI ones ... there's one in my mind, which features a ghost (I think) met/stumbled on in a tunnel or trench - it's not as well-known as Dulce et Dec., and again something more dramatic.

I'll have a look at home later.

NorthernLurker · 10/04/2008 16:10

I think that might be 'strange meeting'?

Bink · 10/04/2008 16:15

Oh WELL DONE, NL, yes it is. I was thinking about it because I remembered it was partly dialogue & I thought that might be useful for Beetroot. However, having re-read it it might be a bit formally wordy for teenagers (so distracting from the power I imagine B. would like).

NorthernLurker · 10/04/2008 16:23

I've never seen it but it sounds jolly good - 'Oh what a lovely war' few details here from a 1998 production

NorthernLurker · 10/04/2008 16:25

here's a review from another production

I really must stop this now - but it's all ^so interesting!!