Mametz Wood : Poem Anthology

“For years afterwards the..”

“Farmers found them - the wasted youth”

The speaker emphasises the youthfulness of those fighting in the war , they were young and subject to such violent conditions

Over half of WW1 soldiers were aged 18 to 23

Their youth wad wasted as they were sensely killed under false pretences of the war

It also shows how the soldiers were buried in a hurry reflecting the amount of people thay had died during the war

Casera is used to give the reader time to reflect on the sufferings faced during the war

“Turning up under their plough blades..”

“As they tended the land”

Deeply unsettling imagery of popping up randomly

Foreshadows the more graphic conditions that are to come

It vaguely hints at mans capacity to make desctrcvutive technology

Plough blades foreshadows the use of cruel machinery to kill the soliders

Tended the land works as a pun as it relates to a farmer tending their own land but is also a metaphor for the land being injured and needing tended to

Shows the destruction of war on people, the environment and generations to come

Created tension between man made and nature

“A chit of bone..”

“The china plate of a solider blade”

A delicate comparison is used that juxtaposes the traditional metaphors you may expect

It shows the nature of thr people and their fragility

China plates are associated with expensive and irreplaceability similarly to human life

Expresses how quick a humans life can be permeantly scarred

“The Earth stands sentinel [..] like..”

“A wound working a foreign body back t the surface.”

The war is now over snd the land watches over the dead soliders

The Earth itself is trying to make sure the soliders sacrifice is not in vsin

Eventually the soliders were uncovered and back to the surface they died on

The foreign may refer to how the man made violence is not natural

It could also represent how all sides are impacted and the violence will be brought to the surface

“In boots that outlasted them [..] and their jaws…”

“Those that have them, dropped open.”

The boots that outlasted them is nearly an oxymoron as they are largely considered to be short lasting, hinting at how fast the soliders were dying and suffering

Their lives were short lasted and they had not even had enough time to properly fight in the war before their life already came to an end.

Those that have them shows how brutal the bloodied war was

Bombs and suffering lead to disfigured soliders

Dropped open suggests the soliders were trying to call out for help, perhaps to warn people of the brutal atrocities of war

“As if the notes they had sung [..] slipped…”

“From their absent tongues.”

The dead soliders are trying to call out and not be forgotten

They were a silent and lost youth

Mass burials meant some soliders were completely forgotten and never recorded

Their stories will never get told and awareness of the suffering they faced will never be given to the living

The true horrors they faced in Mametz wood may never be known

The poem ends without a true resolution, showing the futility of world war 1 and how the soliders never got a true resolution despite their sacrifice