The Send-Off
War Poetry
Contents
Introduction
Wilfred Owen and the Social Historical Context
Lesson 1
What is it about? Read the poem, discussion of ideas, consolidation of
Lesson 2
Imagery
Lesson 3
Style and form
Lesson 4
Language
Lesson 5
Themes
Links
A brief
biography of Wilfred Owen and an exploration of the poem’s context.
understanding.
Discuss the poem’s use of imagery.
Analysis of style and form and Owen’s use of poetic
devices.
Exploration of word choices and depth of meaning, using
P.E.E to write about language.
Themes of the poem explored, consolidation of the poet’s
meaning and purpose
Where to find further information about Wilfred Owen and World War One
resources
Wilfred
Owen
Wilfred
Owen
Objectives:
• To learn about
Wilfred Owen
and the context
of Owen’s poetry
Wilfred Owen
Over the coming lessons we will be
studying the poem The Send-Off but
before we read the poem we need
to find out a little bit about the
author. Wilfred Owen, a British
poet and soldier, was one of the
leading poets of World War One. His
shocking, realistic war poetry on the
horrors of trench life was in stark
contrast to both the public
perception of war at the time, and
to the patriotic verses written by
war poets such as Rupert Brooke.
Owen was killed in action a week
before the war ended.
Click the picture to watch a short film about Wilfred Owen
World War One
Historical Context
Wilfred Owen is one of the most famous war poets. He was
born in 1893 and died in 1918, just one week from the end of
World War One. His poetry is characterised by powerful
descriptions of the conditions faced by soldiers in the
trenches.
World War One took place between 1914 and 1918 and is
remembered particularly for trench warfare, the use of gas
and the appalling and senseless slaughter of millions of men,
many as young as 15 years old.
Owen’s poems are often violent and realistic, challenging
earlier poetry which communicated a pro-war message. The
first-hand experience of war is arguably one reason why there
is such a shift in the attitude of poets towards war.
World War One
Life in the
trenches
See British troops
boarding a train
bound for the war
Click the images to watch two brief films about the First
World War
The Send-Off
An introduction
to the poem
Objectives:
• To read and listen to ‘The Send-Off’
• To discuss ideas/first impressions
• To consolidate general understanding
of the poem
The Send-Off
Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way
To the siding-shed,
And lined the train with faces grimly gay.
Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and
spray
As men's are, dead.
Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp
Stood staring hard,
Sorry to miss them from the upland camp.
Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp
Winked to the guard.
The Send-Off
So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.
They were not ours:
We never heard to which front these were sent.
Nor there if they yet mock what women meant
Who gave them flowers.
Shall they return to beatings of great bells
In wild trainloads?
A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,
May creep back, silent, to still village wells,
Up half-known roads.
What is it about?
Read and/or listen to the poem for the first time,
what do you think it is about?
Click here for a video reading of the poem
What is it about?
The poem is made up of eight brief stanzas. Can you work out what
is happening in each? Complete the table below:
Stanza
What is happening
Stanzas 1 & Owen describes...
2
Stanzas 3 &
4
Stanzas 5 &
6
Stanzas 7 &
8
Consolidate Understanding
What are your first impressions of this poem? Below are a few sentence
starters to help you write a paragraph about it.
12th October 11
The Send-Off
‘The Send-Off’ by _____ is about …
In the first two stanzas the poet …
The third and fourth stanzas describes…
Stanzas five and six…
In the final two stanzas Owen is saying…
Consolidation
In ‘The Send Off’ Owen describes the scene as a group
of soldiers are being sent off to war. The men have just
come from a sending-off ceremony - cheering crowds,
bells, drums, flowers given by strangers – and are now
being packed into trains heading for the war. The scene
is full of mourning and indignity. The soldiers are
waved goodbye by a "dull porter" and a "casual tramp."
Owen hints at the fate of many of the men, "Their
chests were stuck all white with wreath and spray, as
men's are dead." Here Owen reminds us that many of
these men will not return home. This is reinforced in
the line "A few, a few, too few, will return..." to "creep
back silent... up half-known roads.”
Imagery
Imagery
Objectives:
• Analyse the imagery used by Wilfred
Owen in ‘The Send-Off’
Imagery
Look at the imagery used by Owen in this poem. What words
and phrases are used to describe the scene at the train station?
How does Owen create a sinister mood at the start of the
poem? What do you think has happened to the cheering
crowds? How might the men be feeling now they are on the
train? What words are used to suggest silence and secrecy?
What images remind you of a funeral?
Imagery
Look at the imagery used in the first four stanzas.
Why does the poet use these particular images?
The Images
Down the close, darkening lanes
they sang their way
To the siding-shed
faces grimly gay
Their breasts were stuck all white with
wreath and spray
As men's are, dead
Dull porters watched them, and a
casual tramp
Stood staring hard
unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp
Winked to the guard.
What the image conveys
Imagery
Look at the imagery used in the final four stanzas.
Why does the poet use these particular images?
The Images
So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up,
they went
We never heard to which front these
were sent
Shall they return to beatings of
great bells
In wild trainloads?
A few, a few, too few for drums and
yells
creep back, silent, to still village
wells,
Up half-known roads
What the image conveys
‘Wrongs
hushedup’
From the beginning, the
atmosphere seems menacing. The
lanes are ‘darkening’ and
claustrophobic and the siding shed
reminds us of a slaughterhouse.
Send-Off celebrations are over, the
crowds have dispersed and the
soldiers are watched only by 'dull'
porters and a tramp.
The flowers given to the men have
a double meaning as white flowers
are associated with death.
The departure of the soldiers
appears secretive, ‘like wrongs
hushed-up’. Owen suggests that
this is because the true nature of
what is happening to them is being
hidden.
Style and
Structure
Poetic devices
& structure
Objectives:
• Analyse the use of poetic devices and
structure in ‘The Send-Off’
Structure
The poem has an unusual
structure: a three line stanza
followed by a two line stanza,
linked together by rhyme. The
stanzas are made up of long and
short lines, the short line creating
a mood of bitterness and quiet
anger.
Symbols of death are repeated
through out the stanzas, ‘bells’,
white ‘flowers’ and the ‘wreath’
all point the reader to the fate
that awaits thousands of such
men.
Structure
The poem also has a number of
contradictions and ambiguities. The
oxymoron ‘grimly gay’ in the men's
expressions emphasises the
uncertainty of their departure and
possibly the realisation of the destiny
which awaits them. The poem is set
at dusk and the darkness acts as a
metaphor for the dark future that lays
ahead. An atmosphere of conspiracy
exists throughout the poem but is
emphasised in stanza four. The signal
‘nods’, the lamp ‘winks’ to the guard
and the men are silently taken away
by the train into the night.
Poetic Techniques
Match the technique with the correct definition.
Technique
personification
Definition
the act or process of saying or writing
something again
simile
the attribution of human qualities to
objects
alliteration
a comparison between two different
things, especially a phrase containing
the word 'like' or 'as’
repetition
the use of the same letter or sound at the
beginning of words in a sentence
Poetic Techniques
Match the technique with the correct definition.
Technique
personification
Definition
the act or process of saying or writing
something again
simile
the attribution of human qualities to
objects
alliteration
a comparison between two different
things, especially a phrase containing
the word 'like' or 'as’
repetition
the use of the same letter or sound at the
beginning of words in a sentence
Poetic Techniques
Think about the poetic techniques discussed on the last slide.
Copy down the table below. Find examples in the poem and
write down the effect created.
Technique
Evidence
personification
‘unmoved, signals
nodded, and a lamp
Winked to the guard’
alliteration
‘white with wreath’
simile
repetition
Effect
Poetic Devices
How does Owen use structure and poetic devices to describe the scene as
the soldiers board the trains and leave for the war? Use the sentence
starters below to help you write a paragraph about it.
12th June 11
The Send-Off
In ‘The Send-Off’ Wilfred Owen uses a number of poetic
devices…
The simile…
Personification such as……
Alliteration is used to..
Writing
about poetry
using P.E.E
Writing about poetry and
P.E.E
Objectives:
• To understand how to use P.E.E
when writing about poetry
Writing about the poem
You should always, when writing about any text, use the
P.E.E formula. Make a point, find some evidence and then
explain the evidence in detail.
Point, Evidence, Explain
Look at how Owen uses language in the poem. Make three good
points about the poem, select three quotations to back up your
points then explain the quotations in detail.
Point
The poem begins with an
ominous and foreboding
mood.
Evidence
‘Down the close,
darkening lanes they
sang their way
To the siding-shed,
And lined the train
with faces grimly gay.’
Explain
Owen uses language here to create a
feeling of fear and impending doom.
The ‘close, darkening lanes’ are
claustrophobic and frightening and
the send-off is clouded in darkness
as the men bid farewell to home and
head into the unknown.
Don’t forget to explain yourself
Use the information from the table to write three points
about how Owen uses language, structure and devices in
the poem. Add a quote and explanation for each point.
For example
The poem describes…
In the first stanza the poet…
This conveys...
Plenary
Read your paragraph about
‘The Send-Off’ to the rest of
the group.
Ask your peers how it could be
improved.
Themes and
Links
Themes and links
Objectives:
• To explore the themes of the poem
• Consolidate knowledge and
understanding of the poet’s meaning and
purpose
Themes
This is an anti-war poem. The opening stanza
reveals that this is not an occasion of celebration
and happiness but one of fear and shame. By the
time the train leaves for the front the cheering
crowds have gone and only a porter and a tramp are
there to watch the men go. The soldiers try to be
cheerful by singing and smiling but their happiness
seems forced and false hiding their fear. Owen
presents the soldiers as
naive and innocent
victims. Like lambs to
the slaughter they head
off to war unaware
that only a very few will
ever return.
Links
Links
Annotated copy of the poem
The Wilfred Owen Website
The War Poetry website
Audio reading of the poem by Kenneth
Branagh
World War One resources