S4 Homework

S4,
Your homework is to redraft (and in some cases, draft!) the essay we wrote in class on Owen's 'The Last Laugh'. Due TUESDAY 13th November. You have 'Tree of Knowledge' on Monday, so will not be in English.

No excuses!

The poem and essay plan are below:

The Last Laugh

'Oh! Jesus Christ! I'm hit,' he said; and died.
Whether he vainly cursed or prayed indeed,
The Bullets chirped-In vain, vain, vain!
Machine-guns chuckled,-Tut-tut! Tut-tut!
And the Big Gun guffawed.

Another sighed,-'O Mother, -Mother, - Dad!'
Then smiled at nothing, childlike, being dead.
And the lofty Shrapnel-cloud
Leisurely gestured,-Fool!
And the splinters spat, and tittered.

'My Love!' one moaned. Love-languid seemed his mood,
Till slowly lowered, his whole faced kissed the mud.
And the Bayonets' long teeth grinned;
Rabbles of Shells hooted and groaned;
And the Gas hissed. 

Wilfred Owen

ESSAY PLAN

‘The Last Laugh’ by Wilfred Owen

Task: Choose a poem which deals with the topic of war. Identify the poet’s message to the reader, and explain how this message is delivered.

Introduction

Include:

-          Wilfred Owen

-          ‘The Last Laugh’

-          A line or two describing what happens in the poem

-          The theme(s): shock and waste of youth/human life to the machinery of war

-          Owen’s message to his reader

-          The techniques he uses: personification and onomatopoeia

Paragraph One

Include:

-          What happens

-          Why the soldier says “O Jesus Christ! I’m hit”

-          Personification: What do the bullets and guns do? How does Owen make the bullets and guns sound? (hint: think about ‘guffawed’)

-          Owen uses repetition to emphasise the guns’ message. What do the guns and bullets seem to be ‘saying’ to us? (hint: think about “In vain! In vain! In vain!”/ “Tut-tut! Tut-tut!”)

Paragraph Two

Include:

-          What happens (Who is this soldier? Why is he calling out to his mother and father? What is Owen reminding us of?)

-          What does Owen tell us about his facial expression? Why? Why does he say the soldier’s face is ‘childlike’? (hint: is a battlefield a place for children? Is ‘being dead’ ok?)

-          The soldier is killed by a bomb and its shrapnel. What does the ‘Shrapnel-cloud’ do and say? Why does Owen have it do this?

Paragraph Three

Include:

-          Who is the third soldier calling for? What does this tell us about him?

-          Why is this soldier ‘kissing the mud’? Why might this be disturbing to the reader? Who should he be kissing?

-          Look at: ‘the Bayonets’ long teeth grinned’. Why has Owen described the bayonets this way? How does it make the reader feel?

-          There is a lot of noise in this stanza: ‘Rabbles of Shells hooted and groaned’. Why might the shells be described as hooting and groaning? (hint: think of them as spectators at a match).

-          Owen ends his poem with ‘the Gas hissed’. Explain why this is a powerful use of personification.

Conclusion

Who or what is laughing at the soldiers when they die?

What is Owen trying to say about the war?

Do you think his poem is effective? Did you like it? Explain why, or why not.

For more information, check out the following sites of interest:

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/education/pathways/path/5hn2it

and

http://www.wilfredowen.org.uk/poetry/the-last-laugh