Name: _____________________________________________
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The Things They Carried Poetry Socratic Seminar
Block:
As you gather your thoughts in preparation for the seminar, make note of your ideas here. This
sheet will be considered part of your grade for the seminar.
I. Select a poem that stands out to you in some way. It may speak to you for its beauty, its
poignant message, or its unique structure.
Why have you chosen this poem? What’s significant about it?
II. One open-ended question
Remember that open-ended questions will lead to discussion and not simply an “answer.”
Thus, you want to create questions that go beyond the basics of a poem.
III.
Discussion questions
For each of these questions, write notes and reference lines from the poems to support your
ideas. You do not need complete sentences, but you should have enough here to support
your comments in the seminar.
1. Carl Sandburg wrote “Killers” in 1914. What elements of his poem seem to speak to the
timeless elements of war?
2. What image stays with you most powerfully from the poem “Facing It,” (1984) and why?
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3. What is the tone with regard to the word “Great” in the title, “The Things That Make
a Soldier Great” (1918)?
4. What is the role of the second person, “you,” in “Song of Napalm” (1988)?
5. Why is war “quaint and curious,” according to Thomas Hardy (pub. 1902)? Why
those two adjectives?
6. Wilfred Owen was killed in the last year of World War One, just after he wrote this
poem. Thoughts?