Poetry and WWI

 

WWI BACKGROUND

 

  • Years: 1914-1918

 

  • Causes: Arms Race, Alliances, Assassination

 

    • Kaiser Wilhelm II (Emperor of Germany) – when he was crowned he announced that he was going to build a world-class Navy to rival Britain. He had a “bully complex.” His arm was damaged at birth; he suffered awful treatments; had a lot to prove in terms of physical strength.
    • Eventually the five great powers were locked in an arms race (Germany, Austria, Russia, France and Britain.)
    • Formed alliances to “prevent” war: Germany, Austria, Italy (later) AGAINST Russia, France, Serbia, Britain, and U.S. (later)
    • There was great resistance in Serbia and it wanted to expand.
    • Secret Serbian society (Black Hand) murdered Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Austria) and his father, Franz Joseph (the Emperor of Austria) vows revenge. Wants to stamp out Serbia’s political strength.
    • Austria declares war on Serbia, Alliances kick in, and war has begun.

 

  • Approximately 8,700,000 deaths

 

  • Battle Casualties in WWI higher than in WWII

 

  • Wiped out virtually an entire generation of young men

 

 

Horrors

 

  • Trench Warfare – When two armies would be advancing and realized that they could not proceed, but wanted to keep the territory they had already taken, they would dig these big trenches and start bombing each other from where they were. (Trenches lined with sandbags and barbed wire. “No Man’s Land” was between the two armies.”)
    • floods, rats, rotting bodies, long bombardments, heavy artillery
    • Stalemate Mentality – troops would spend months deeply entrenched. They would be bombing each other like crazy but nothing would change. They were trying to destroy each other, meanwhile they watched the world around them fall apart. The same day repeated over and over again.
    • Shell Shock – psychological disorder associated with the stress and trauma of war.
      • Unrelenting anxiety – anxiety attacks from various sounds that remind them of shells flying through the air.
      • Soldiers who had bayoneted men in the face developed hysterical tics on their own faces.
      • Stomach cramps seized men who had knifed their foes in the abdomen.
      • Snipers lost their sight
      • Terrifying nightmares
      • “War hysteria” in the battlefield. Soldiers were frozen, unable to function.

 

  • Poison Gas – first time chemical weapons were used

 

  • Tanks – made war “impersonal” – big, steel monsters. Inhuman.

 

 

 

Desolate, war-scarred landscapes

 

  • Blasted trees, mud

 

  • Miles of barbed wire

 

At Home

  • Protected from horrors

 

  • Patriotic Slogans – troops went there for adventure. Some of the Irish soldiers signed up without even knowing whose side they were on or what it was about. Radio commercials and Ads: “Join with a Friend!”

 

  • Romantic Terms about the “Glory of War”

 

 

THE POETRY

 

Important Considerations

  • Perspective (most of them soldiers)

 

  • Issue – the idea being discussed

 

  • Theme – what is being said about the issue

 

  • Conventions (Simile, Metaphor, Imagery, etc.)

 

  • Connections to All Quiet On The Western Front