English Literature of the First World War

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering the key poets, poems, historical events, and literary themes of English First World War literature as discussed in the lecture notes.

Oh! What a Lovely War!

A bitter and ironic title given to the course, originally an inspiration from a popular British army song that mocked the horrors of war with sarcasm.

Shellshock

A post-traumatic stress disorder ($PTSD$) commonly seen in trenches, manifesting as stutters, mutism, or amnesia, and often compared to female hysteria during the $19$th century.

The Great War and Modern Memory

A classic critical text by historian Paul Fussell that analyzes the unique relationship between literature and World War I.

Lord Kitchener

The General Secretary of War and hero of many colonial campaigns who was the central figure of British propaganda, famously depicted with a pointing finger.

The Bantam Battalion

Special military units created in $1916$ for soldiers who did not meet standard height requirements, often including those with physical health problems.

"The Soldier"

A famous sonnet by Rupert Brooke that idealizes sacrifice and the romantic notion that a fallen Englishman transforms a "foreign field" forever into England.

"To Germany"

A sonnet by Charles Sorley addressed to the enemy, suggesting that both sides are "blind" and "gropers" who do not fully understand the war.

"Break of Day in the Trenches"

A poem by Isaac Rosenberg featuring a "sardonic rat" that has the "cosmopolitan sympathy" to cross between English and German lines.

A Soldier's Declaration

A statement written by Siegfried Sassoon in $1917$ as an act of defiance against military authority, protesting the political errors and the prolongation of the war.

"Dulce et Decorum Est"

A visceral poem by Wilfred Owen that provides a photographic and visceral description of a gas attack and identifies the idea of dying for one's country as the "Old Lie."

The Pity of War

Wilfred Owen's central poetic concept, defined as the truthful expression of suffering and pain in war rather than a focus on glory or heroism.

"Strange Meeting"

Wilfred Owen's masterpiece depicting a visionary encounter in a hellish tunnel where the narrator meets the enemy soldier he killed the day before.

"Mental Cases"

A poem by Wilfred Owen that describes shellshocked veterans as "purgatorial shadows" whose minds have been "ravished" by the dead.

"Glory of Women"

A satirical and critical sonnet by Siegfried Sassoon that attacks the "callous complacence" of women who glorify war while men suffer in the mud.

"Drummer Hodge"

A Thomas Hardy poem about an uneducated young drummer from Wessex who dies in South Africa and becomes part of a foreign landscape.

The Talking Cure

A psychoanalytic treatment method encouraged by Freud and used at Craiglockhart War Hospital involving hypnosis and the interpretation of dreams.

"When you see millions of the mouthless dead"

Charles Sorley's last poem, found in his kitbag after his death, which depicts the dead as a "pale battalion" that can no longer feel or speak.

Remembrance Day

Also known as Armistice Day, marked by two minutes of silence at the $11$th hour of the $11$th day of the $11$th month, with the poppy as its symbol.

"For All We Have and Are"

A propaganda poem by Rudyard Kipling that characterizes German soldiers as "The Hun" at the gate and calls for a "sacrifice of body, will, and soul."

"Men Who March Away"

A 1914 poem by Thomas Hardy that uses a rhythmic marching beat to depict soldiers leaving for war while an onlooker watches with a "musing eye."

"Louse Hunting"

An ironic and visual poem by Isaac Rosenberg describing the energetic, almost theatrical "battle" of soldiers trying to rid themselves of vermin in a dugout.

The "Old Lie"

The Latin phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori," which translates to "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country."

"The Wipers Times"

A trench journal produced by soldiers in Belgium that used satire and poetry to cope with military life and boredom.

"The Forbidden Zone"

A collection of short stories by Mary Borden based on her experiences as a nurse in French hospitals during World War I.

"The Poet as Hero"

A poem where Siegfried Sassoon admits to a "senseless hatred" and seeks "absolution" in his songs after saying goodbye to chivalric myths like Galahad.