•Quickly cut up the words on the sheets that you have
been given.
•Sort them in any way you choose (use the post-its to
create headings. The headings could be thematic, word
or language led (conjunctions etc).
•In groups, based on the words you have and the
heading you have created, come up with a brief
summary of what you think the poem is about.
•Having seen the language and considered the possible
themes, can you come up with a possible title?
Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?
Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows,
Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish,
Baring teeth that leer like skulls' teeth wicked?
Stroke on stroke of pain, - but what slow panic,
Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?
Ever from their hair and through their hands' palms
Misery swelters. Surely we have perished
Sleeping, and walk hell; but who these hellish?
- These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished.
Memory fingers in their hair of murders,
Multitudinous murders they once witnessed.
Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander,
Treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter.
Always they must see these things and hear them,
Batter of guns and shatter of flying muscles,
Carnage incomparable, and human squander
Rucked too thick for these men's extrication.
Therefore still their eyeballs shrink tormented
Back into their brains, because on their sense
Sunlight seems a blood-smear; night comes blood-black;
Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh.
- Thus their heads wear this hilarious, hideous,
Awful falseness of set-smiling corpses.
- Thus their hands are plucking at each other;
Picking at the rope-knouts of their scourging;
Snatching after us who smote them, brother,
Pawing us who dealt them war and madness
‘Mental Cases’ by Wilfred Owen
Lesson Aims
•To understand the context of the poem and
its meaning.
•To understand the meaning of the term
’shell shock’ and its causes
•To be able to analyse the key
ideas/language
•To be able to explain the relevance of the
poem to a modern audience
Wilfred Owen
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7MuM
nss4Rw
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK5kme
0dCQY
The context of the poem
Owen was killed on the 4th
November 1918, his parents
were informed on the 11th,
the day peace was declared.
His anti war poems are
world famous and expose
the pointless suffering and
injustice of violence.
Written by Wilfred Owen, a
bookish, creative young man
who joined the army in
September 1915. He was
idealistic and believed in the
honour of fighting for your
country.
“..the place was full of men muttering uneasily
or suddenly crying out in their sleep. Around
me was that underworld of dreams haunted
by submerged memories of warfare and its
intolerable shocks……. Each man was back in
his doomed sector of a horror-stricken front
line, where the panic and stampede of some
ghastly experience was re-enacted” Thus
Siegfried Sassoon remembers the scene in
Craiglockhart where he and Wilfred Owen
were patients in late summer 1917.
1917 was the pivotal year in his
life. In January he was posted to
France and saw his first action in
which he and his men were
forced to hold a flooded dug-out
in no-man's land for fifty hours
whilst under heavy
bombardment. He was also
injured in March but returned to
the front line in April.
In May he was caught in a shell-explosion
and when his battalion was eventually
relieved he was diagnosed as having shellshock ('neurasthenia'). He was evacuated to
England and on June 26th he arrived at
Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh.
It was here that he met Siegfried Sassoon
who was also a patient. Sassoon already had
a reputation as a poet and after an awkward
introduction he agreed to look over Owen's
poems.
Shell Shock
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc7ehb
8agWY
Shellshock
• The First World War devastated the lives of a generation of
young men. But the trauma of war didn't end when the guns
stopped firing...
• Thousands of soldiers returned from the battlefield shell
shocked from the sheer horror and fear of the war. By the
end of the war, 20,000 men were still suffering from shell
shock. Thousands more had experienced its symptoms
during their military service.
• On the front line
• At first shellshock was thought to be caused by soldiers
being exposed to exploding shells. But doctors couldn't find
any physical damage to explain the symptoms. Medical staff
started to realise that there were deeper causes. Doctors
soon found that many men suffering the symptoms of shell
shock without having even been in the front lines.
Medical Symptoms
• Arthur Hubbard was one of millions of men who suffered psychological
trauma as a result of their war experiences.
• Soldiers who had bayoneted men in the face developed hysterical tics
of their own facial muscles. Stomach cramps seized men who knifed
their foes in the abdomen. Snipers lost their sight. Terrifying
nightmares of being unable to withdraw bayonets from the enemies'
bodies persisted long after the slaughter.
• The dreams might occur 'right in the middle of an ordinary conversation'
when 'the face of a Boche that I have bayoneted, with its horrible gurgle
and grimace, comes sharply into view', an infantry captain complained.
An inability to eat or sleep after the slaughter was common. Nightmares
did not always occur during the war. World War One soldiers like Rowland
Luther did not suffer until after the armistice when (he admitted) he
'cracked up' and found himself unable to eat, deliriously re-living his
experiences of combat.
Symptoms of Shellshock
• Read the following accounts written by journalists who spent time in
the trenches during World War One.
• What symptoms of shell shock can you identify?
• “I saw a sergeant-major convulsed like someone suffering from
epilepsy. He was moaning horribly with blind terror in his eyes. He
had to be strapped to a stretcher before he could be carried away.
Soon afterwards I saw another soldier shaking in every limb, his
mouth slobbered, and two comrades could not hold him still. These
badly shell-shocked boys clawed their mouths ceaselessly. Others
sat in the field hospitals in a state of coma, dazed, as though deaf
and dumb.”
• “The shell-shock cases were the worst to see and the worst to cure.
At first shell-shock was regarded as damn nonsense and sheer
cowardice by Generals who had not themselves witnessed its effects.
They had not seen, as I did, strongly, sturdy, men shaking with ague,
mouthing like madman, figures of dreadful terror, speechless and
uncontrollable. It was a physical as well as a moral shock which had
reduced them to this quivering state.”
What causes shellshock?
• Battlefield breaking points
• On 7 July 1916, Arthur Hubbard painfully set pen to paper in an
attempt to explain to his mother why he was no longer in France. He
had been taken from the battlefields and deposited in the East Suffolk
and Ipswich Hospital suffering from 'shell shock'. In his words, his
breakdown was related to witnessing 'a terrible sight that I shall never
forget as long as I live'. He told his mother:
• 'We had strict orders not to take prisoners, no matter if wounded my
first job was when I had finished cutting some of their wire away, to
empty my magazine on 3 Germans that came out of one of their deep
dugouts. bleeding badly, and put them out of misery. They cried for
mercy, but I had my orders, they had no feeling whatever for us poor
chaps... it makes my head jump to think about it. ‘
• Hubbard had 'gone over the top' at the Battle of the Somme. While he
managed to fight as far as the fourth line of trenches, by 3.30pm
practically his whole battalion had been wiped out by German artillery.
He was buried, dug himself out, and during the subsequent retreat
was almost killed by machine gun fire. Within this landscape of horror,
he collapsed.
To be able to explain the relevance of the poem to a
modern audience?
• Today the symptoms of shell shock would be classed as some of the
symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological and physical
condition that can be caused by extremely frightening or distressing
events. PTSD can occur after experiencing or witnessing traumatic
events such as military combat, natural disasters, serious accidents,
terrorist attacks, violent deaths and other situations in which the person
felt extreme fear, horror or helplessness.
When you read a text for the first time:
• IDENTIFY any TECHNIQUES being used (use the
glossary to help) and think about their EFFECT.
• NOTICE any significant or unusual PUNCTUATION and
think about the EFFECT it has.
• LOOK at the FORM / STRUCTURE / LAYOUT of the
poem on the page. Think about how the division into
lines and verses affects MEANING and EMPHASIS.
• CONSIDER any unexpected or particularly effective
WORD CHOICE and any variations in TONE and/or
REGISTER.
Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?
Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows,
Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish,
Baring teeth that leer like skulls' teeth wicked?
Stroke on stroke of pain, - but what slow panic,
Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?
Ever from their hair and through their hands' palms
Misery swelters. Surely we have perished
Sleeping, and walk hell; but who these hellish?
relating to or similar to
purgatory- in Roman Catholic
doctrine, the place where
souls remain until they have
expiated their sins and can go
to heaven; a place of suffering
To carve/cut grooves in
something using a sharp
tool
a deep crack or hole in the
ground
a pattern of repeated
geometric figures, usually
consisting of straight lines,
used as an ornament or in an
ornamental border AND a
restless complaining state
brought on by anxiety or
irritation
- These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished.
Memory fingers in their hair of murders,
Multitudinous murders they once witnessed.
Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander,
Treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter.
Always they must see these things and hear them,
Batter of guns and shatter of flying muscles,
Carnage incomparable, and human squander
Rucked too thick for these men's extrication.
A euphemism for rape –
to capture and carry off
something by force
countless
Marsh/bog
Mass/crammed/
rugby scrum
Disconnection /
rescue
Therefore still their eyeballs shrink tormented
Back into their brains, because on their sense
Sunlight seems a blood-smear; night comes blood-black;
Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh.
- Thus their heads wear this hilarious, hideous,
Awful falseness of set-smiling corpses.
- Thus their hands are plucking at each other;
Picking at the rope-knouts of their scourging;
Snatching after us who smote them, brother,
Pawing us who dealt them war and madness
a leather whip formerly
used in imperial Russia for
flogging
AND – religious
connotations – whipping as
an extreme from of selfpunishment to expiate sins
To punish/ whip
somebody severely
Biblical term: to hit
someone very hard; to
affect someone strongly;
to afflict someone
Analysis of the Poem
• We are going to complete a mindmap relay for ‘Mental
Cases’ where you are going to analyse the text!
• Identify
Highlight
Annotate
• TECHNIQUES
» word choice
» Imagery
1 point for each
technique
» Figures of speech
2 points for
» Tone/register
correct analysis
» Structure & punctuation
You will have ten minutes on your own to roughly annotate
the poem to help get you warmed up for the race.
Rhetorical Question: opening stanza= a
description of the soldiers (although they are not
identified as such at this point. Questions focus
reading on dehumanising effect of war – so
impacted they are not recognisable as human
• Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?
Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows,
Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish,
Baring teeth that leer like skulls' tongues wicked?
Stroke on stroke of pain, — but what slow panic,
Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?
Ever from their hair and through their hand palms
Misery swelters. Surely we have perished
Sleeping, and walk hell; but who these hellish?
Rhetorical questions immediately
engage the reader. Introduce idea
of how soldiers have been
transformed by war
/unrecognisable
choice conveys how men
Lines 1-4 Word
are passive. ‘Twilight’ has
connotations of life ending and
creates sinister mood
Metaphor develops
Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?sinister mood. Ref to
purgatory (hell)
Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows, suggests extent of
suffering, men are
trapped in living hell.
‘Shadows’ physical
Drooping tongues from jays that slob their relish,
weakness as well as
disassociation with
Baring teeth that leer like skulls' teeth wicked?world Detail compares
suggests men reduced
to animalistic state by
war
Word choice has
connotations of
pleasure, making
description even more
disturbing.
Simile clearly
suggests men have
effectively been
killed, that they are
now empty or hollow
in a sense.
Repetition emphasises suffering
and has connotations of
deliberate torture.
Word choice,
emphasised
by use of
enjambment,
has
connotations
of extreme
violence and
enormity of
suffering it
has caused
Lines 5-9
Use of paradox to convey how
longevity of trauma of battle
Stroke on stroke of pain,- but what slow
Synedoche
develops idea of
panic,
intensity of
suffering
Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?
Ever from their hair and through their hands' palms
Misery swelters. Surely we have perished
Sleeping, and walk hell; but who these hellish?
Description and metaphor conveys
constant agony of soldiers and how
they are entirely possessed by shell
shock, total loss of control
Again use of rhetorical question to involve
reader- suggests even to witness
soldiers’ suffering is unbearable.
Ambiguity of subject highlights how
soldiers have been devastated by conflict.
Summary of Stanza 1
• Owen creates a very disturbing image at the very start of
the poem to create an immediate and powerful impact on
the reader.
• Reader is engaged through use of repeated use of
rhetorical questions.
• The identity of the subject of the poem is deliberately
ambiguous in this stanza to engage readers’ interest and
emphasise the devastating transformation of the
soldiers’ caused by war.
• Repeated references to hell, death and suffering to
develop sense of extent of suffering caused by war and
to imply something immoral or sinful has occurred.
Identity of subject finally revealed
as this stanza begins to explain
what has caused their suffering
Lines 10-14
Word choice has connotations
of something sinful, men have
overwhelmed by inhumane
acts they witnessed
-These are men whose minds the Dead have
ravished.
Alliteration and repetition
Memory fingers in their hair of
emphasise sense of
extent of violence. Idea is
murders,
immoral, a sin/ crime
choice
Multitudinous murders they once witnessed. Word
develops idea
that men are
victims of war
Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander,
Treading blood from lungs that had loved
laughter.
Juxtaposition and alliteration
Word choice creates image of
magnitude of loss of life and
struggle to endure war
create pathos for soldiers
and shocking image of
reality of war
Enjambment used to
highlight long lasting
impact of war
Lines 15 -18
Plosive sound and use of
rhyme emphasise
violence of war
• Always they must see these things and hear
them,
Phrase creates image of total
destruction of human life
Batter of guns and shatter of flying muscles,
Carnage incomparable, and human squander
Rucked too thick for these men's extrication.
Enjambment and
emotive word choice
convey sense of scale
and savagery of
violence
Stanza creates a list of
horrors of war men have
witnessed to build to this
climatic line- they can’t
escape memories of
conflict
Emotive word choice
tells of how life has
been carelessly
wasted- critical,
angry tone
Summary of Stanza 2
• Having forced the reader to examine the horrific
state of the victims of war, in Stanza 2 Owen
exposes the reality of combat that has destroyed
them.
• The stanza operates as a list of to convey a sense of
the overwhelming horror of war as it describes men
‘wading’ through blood and crushing bodies under
foot in the chaos and din of the battlefield.
• Word choice such as ‘murder’ and ‘carnage’
continue to develop the idea that a terrible crime or
sin has been committed.
Owen makes direct
link between horrors
of war and
shellshocked men
Lines
19-21
Implies war is too dreadful to look
at and yet men can’t erase these
images
Word choice
continues extended
metaphor of hell and
sin
Therefore still their eyeballs shrink tormented
Back into their brains, because on their sense
Sunlight seems a blood-smear; night comes
Night brings men no peace
blood-black;
‘blood-black’ has obvious
connotations of evil and death
Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds
Simile explains that every day
afresh.
brings new suffering- dawn,
Images of life and death are
juxtaposed to show how what is
naturally good is corrupted by
war- everything is tainted by
violence
symbolic of hope and new starts,
is a time of renewed pain and
misery
Lines 22-27
Harsh ‘h’ sound in alliteration emphasises
grotesque state of soldiers
-Thus their heads wear this hilarious, hideous,
Awful falseness of set-smiling corpses.
Metaphor compares men to
dead bodies with fixed
smiles caused by rigor
mortis, as being mocked by
madness
-Thus their hands are plucking at each other;
Picking at the rope-knouts of their scourging;
Snatching after us who smote them, brother,
Metaphor develops
refs to torture, as if
men being
punished for their
part in war
Pawing us who dealt them war and madness.
Word choice implies desperation
Owen clearly condemns
society for sending men to
war, very bitter critical tone
Summary of Stanza 3
• In the final stanza we are, again, faced with a vivid
description of the horrific suffering of these men.
The suggestion is that this pain and suffering will
never end for them.
• He ends with clear condemnation of society – we are
to blame for this.
Personal Response
• A really great critical essay not only shows that you
understand a text and can analyse it but that you have
formed a thoughtful opinion about it that you can
explain clearly.
• Explain:
• What you feel about the subject and message of the
poem (war and how it affects people’s lives) Include
a clear sense of how the style and language of the
poem creates this feeling.
Notes
• Detailed annotation of the poem
• Discussion of key points/themes
• Create notes like Almond Tree individually for revision
purposes using a thematic approach
Key Themes and Messages
Discussion and
Note Taking
Points About Form
Discussion and
Note Taking
Writing the Essay
• Same as essays for the Almond Tree – keep focused on the
question and analyse techniques with clear reference to it.
• We are going to look at the start of a model essay and then you are
going to have a chance to work through the remainder of the essay
• Plans for exemplar questions
• Select a question to complete for a week today
Critical Essay Task
• Choose a poem in which the poet has achieved a perfect
blend of form and content.
• Show how the poet achieves this and discuss how it
adds to your appreciation of the poem.
• In your answer you must refer to at least TWO of
structure, mood, imagery, ideas or any other appropriate
feature.
• REMEMBER TO ANALYSE BOTH PARTS OF THE
QUESTION.
Critical Essay Task
•
•
•
Choose a poem in which the poet has achieved a perfect blend of form and content.
Show how the poet achieves this and discuss how it adds to your appreciation of the
poem.
In your answer you must refer to at least TWO of structure, mood, imagery, ideas or
any other appropriate feature.
•
REMEMBER TO ANALYSE BOTH PARTS OF THE QUESTION.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Plan – Intro TAGL
Overview/assertion
Stanza one
Stanza two
Stanza three
Conclusion
Introduction
TAGL
•
•
•
Choose a poem in which the poet has achieved a perfect blend of form and
content.
Show how the poet achieves this and discuss how it adds to your
appreciation of the poem.
In your answer you must refer to at least TWO of structure, mood, imagery,
ideas or any other appropriate feature.
• Form and content blend perfectly in ‘Mental Cases’ by
the renowned war poet, Wilfred Owen. In writing this
poem Owen has successfully combined these aspects
through a range of techniques, such as structure and
imagery, which enhance our understanding of the poem.
Introduction
TAGL
•
•
•
Choose a poem in which the poet has achieved a perfect blend of form and
content.
Show how the poet achieves this and discuss how it adds to your
appreciation of the poem.
In your answer you must refer to at least TWO of structure, mood, imagery,
ideas or any other appropriate feature.
• Form and content blend perfectly in ‘Mental Cases’ by
the renowned war poet, Wilfred Owen. In writing this
poem Owen has successfully combined these aspects
through a range of techniques, such as structure and
imagery, which enhance our understanding of the poem.
Overview
• Provide an introductory paragraph that introduces they
key elements of your essay and initiates your line of
thought e.g.:
• The form of Owen’s poem – in terms of the strucutre and
language– marries beautifully with the upsetting content
and is very effective in conveying Owen’s ideas, in
particular his message regarding the surviving soldiers of
the World War I trenches. Each verse has a particular
function in the conveying of the message, which
effectively allows us to follow the writer’s ideas from
conception to conclusion.
Overview
• Provide an introductory paragraph that introduces they
key elements of your essay and initiates your line of
thought e.g.:
• The form of Owen’s poem – in terms of the strucutre and
language– marries beautifully with the upsetting content
and is very effective in conveying Owen’s ideas, in
particular his message regarding the surviving soldiers of
the World War I trenches. Each verse has a particular
function in the conveying of the message, which
effectively allows us to follow the writer’s ideas from
A = quotations
conception to conclusion.
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
Section 1 – Verse 1
• In the first verse Owen combines the use of rhetorical
questions and powerful imagery to confront us with
shocking images of the effect war has had on these
men, even though they have survived. These rhetorical
questions effectively engage our attention as he
challenges us to guess what he is describing: the men
are so debilitated by their experience they are virtually
unrecognisable as human.
A = quotations
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
Section 1 – Verse 1 - Point
• In the first verse Owen combines the use of rhetorical
questions and powerful imagery to confront us with
shocking images of the effect war has had on these
men, even though they have survived. These rhetorical
questions effectively engage our attention as he
challenges us to guess what he is describing: the men
are so debilitated by their experience they are virtually
unrecognisable as human.
A = quotations
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
Section 1 - EA
• For example the poem opens with three different
questions : ‘Who’, ‘Why’ and ‘Wherefore’ and this
repetitive style definitely creates a sense that whatever
he is describing is unidentifiable.
A = quotations
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
Section 1 - EA
• For example the poem opens with three different
questions : ‘Who’, ‘Why’ and ‘Wherefore’ and this
repetitive style definitely creates a sense that whatever
he is describing is unidentifiable.
A = quotations
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
Section 1 - EA
• This idea is continued with their description as
‘purgatorial shadows’ which introduces the idea that
they are less than what they once were, reduced to
‘shadows’ of their formal selves as well as creatures
trapped in the limbo of Purgatory, somewhere
between heaven and hell. It is clear Owen wants us
to realise that these creatures are suffering and that
this suffering is never-ending.
A = quotations
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
Section 1 - EA
• This idea is continued with their description as
‘purgatorial shadows’ which introduces the idea that
they are less than what they once were, reduced to
‘shadows’ of their formal selves as well as creatures
trapped in the limbo of Purgatory, somewhere
between heaven and hell. It is clear Owen wants us
to realise that these creatures are suffering and that
this suffering is never-ending.
A = quotations
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
Section 1 - EA
• However, what is surprising, given the subject matter is
that Owen is not only trying to engage our sympathy at
this point. He also shocks and repels us with very
powerful and unpleasant imagery such as, “drooping
tongues” and “jaws that slob their relish’, both of which
create an image of a beast or an animal. This vivid
depiction powerfully reinforces the idea that Owen’s
subjects are less than human – they are frightening and
even revolting in appearance, and unrecognisable as
humans.
A = quotations
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
Section 1 - EA
• However, what is surprising, given the subject matter is
that Owen is not only trying to engage our sympathy at
this point. He also shocks and repels us with very
powerful and unpleasant imagery such as, “drooping
tongues” and “jaws that slob their relish’, both of which
create an image of a beast or an animal. This vivid
depiction powerfully reinforces the idea that Owen’s
subjects are less than human – they are frightening and
even revolting in appearance, and unrecognisable as
humans.
A = quotations
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
Section 1 - EA
• Nevertheless he does also effectively engages
our sympathy after these shocking descriptions
with several other images including:
• The repetition in ‘Stroke on stroke of pain’
• The juxtaposition in the phrase ‘low panic’
• The powerful metaphor, ‘Gouged these chasms
round their fretted sockets?’
the highly effective use of personification in
‘Misery swelters’.
• ANALYSE and EVALUATE at least one
example…
End of part 1!
• Verse one ends effectively with a final question, ‘who
these hellish?’ which again reinforces the
unrecognisable nature of the poem’s subjects as well as
repeating the idea of their situation as being similar to
being in Hell.
A = quotations
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
End of part 1!
• Verse one ends effectively with a final question, ‘who
these hellish?’ which again reinforces the
unrecognisable nature of the poem’s subjects as well as
repeating the idea of their situation as being similar to
being in Hell.
A = quotations
B = techniques
C = linking
D = analysis
E = Evaluation
Part 2
• Owen next successfully begins verse 2,
introducing the answer to his rhetorical
questions of verse 1 with a dash. He
conveys both who these creatures are,
and why they are as they are. He also
continues to shock and repel us whilst also
ensuring that we feel real compassion for
the soldiers as he describes the horrors of
war and the impact it has had on those
who survived.
Horrors of war:
(paragraph)
• Batter of guns and shatter of flying muscles,
• Carnage incomparable and human squander
• Rucked too thick for these men's extrication.
• ANALYSE and EVALUATE at least one example.
Shocking and repellent:
(paragraph)
• Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander,
• Treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter.
• shatter of flying muscles,
• ANALYSE and EVALUATE at least one example.
Generating compassion:
(paragraph)
• …men whose minds the Dead have ravished
• Memory fingers in their hair of murders,
Multitudinous murders they once witnessed.
• Always they must see these things and hear them,
• Rucked too thick for these men's extrication.
• ANALYSE and EVALUATE at least one example.
Part 3: Final Verse
• Finally, in the third verse, Owen comes to the heart of his
message, where he accuses those he feels are
responsible for creating and then abandoning these
creatures. He reaches a number of conclusions in this
verse, and instead of questions, uses language which
introduces an explanation of his ideas: ‘Therefore’ and
‘Thus’. The verse begins with further description of the
condition of the soldiers in the hospital, engendering not
just a feeling of compassion but also one of anger. He
forcefully conveys the on-going state of mind of the
soldiers through a variety of imagery, strongly
communicating a central idea of the poem: that the
damage is done is so great there is no hope of healing.
Possible quotations
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sunlight seems a bloodsmear; night comes blood-black;
Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh
— Thus their heads wear this hilarious, hideous,
Awful falseness of set-smiling corpses.
— Thus their hands are plucking at each other;
Picking at the rope-knouts of their scourging;
• ANALYSE and EVALUATE at least one example.
Final Lines
Owen movingly saves his most powerful idea for the
closing lines of the poem. Here he lays the blame for what
has happened to these soldiers quite squarely on those he
feels are responsible- the people who ‘sold’ them the idea
embodied in the Latin motto made famous by another of
Owen’s poems:
Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
In addition, through his use of ‘us’ and ‘brother’ he fully
acknowledges his own part in this.
Conclusion
• In conclusion, whilst Owen is famous for poetry which
recreates the WWI trench experience, in ‘Mental Cases’,
by employing a range of techniques, he goes further. In
this poem, a perfect blend of form and content, he goes
beyond the trenches to explore key ideas: to describe
what happens to those who return; to communicate in
powerful detail the effect these experiences had; and
finally to accuse and condemn those responsible.
Choose a poem which seems to you to be critical of a person or a point of view.
Discuss how effectively this criticism is presented by the poet.
Choose a poem in which the central concern(s) is/are clarified for you in the
closinglines.
Show how these closing lines provide an effective clarification of the central
concern(s) of the poem.
Choose a poem in which the creation of mood or atmosphere is an important
feature.
Show how the poet creates the mood or atmosphere, and discuss its
importance in your appreciation of the poem as a whole.
Choose a poem in which the poet explores one of the following emotions:
anguish, dissatisfaction, regret, loss.
Show how the poet explores the emotion and discuss to what extent he or she
is successful in deepening your understanding of it.