The Student Room Group

English Literature Unit 6 Model Answer

This is the essay from the AQA website, June 2003, which was awarded 40/40.

The only problem with the one on the site is that it is impossible to read, so I typed it up and now hopefully it is more legible. :smile:

Part a)
Basing your answer on Extract A and Extract E, you should:

Write a comparison of the ways the writers present ideas about slaughter and sacrifice.


Say how far you agree with the view that Scott's poem is more effective than Owen's in communicating its message.



Extract A: John Scott ‘The Drum’
Extract E: Wilfred Owen ‘The Send-off”

Despite differences in time, these two poems both take a common stance against the sacrifice of young men in war. ‘The Drum’ is most clearly marked by the intense beat of the lines that echoes that seam to be like the beating of the eponymous drum. The dogmatic metre has a stress on every second syllable, giving emphasis and fierce energy to the delivery on the lines. The repetition of ‘round’ and ‘and’ at the start of lines complement this effect. The content of the poem further contributes to this effect of noise and the relentless delivery of the lines; loud sounds like ‘moans’ and ‘groans’ are described while the direct intervention of Scott’s voice to proclaim ‘I hate’ or call ‘human woes’ allows the poem to directly and ambiguously attack war.

Despite similar attitudes, ‘The Send-Off’ is entirely the opposite in terms of rhythm and descriptions of sound. Lines like ‘Down the close darkening lanes’ are slower and without metre; the ‘darkening’ in fact causes a reader to stumble slightly when reading the line. The poem also specifically denies the loud sounds of the Drum: ‘too few for drums and yells’. Soldiers are ‘silent’ and more ‘like wrongs hushed-up’. The obvious, fervent fury and passion of ‘The Drum’ is entirely absent, which is perhaps why critics might consider it to be an inferior poem. The truth is, though, that the idea of slaughter and sacrifice are delivered in equally powerful ways; but different aspects are explored. The tender, shocked silence of the returning troops is a sign of horror just as much as the ‘tears’ and ‘moans’ of ‘The Drum’

Both oppose war, but Scott is writing a poem to attack, declaring ‘hate’ and calling youth ‘thoughtless’. Owen leaves more unsaid; he does not describe the fate of the dead or wounded, as Scott does when he mentions: ‘Mangled limbs, and dying groans.’ He describes the fate of survivors who are rendered ‘silent’ and left unfamiliar with home; by implication the horrors of war and death must be terrible indeed, if this is what happens to those who survive.

A further difference between Extract A and E is that of how specific the event is that it is being described ‘The Drum’ is quite abstract; it discusses universals like ‘youth’ and ‘foreign lands’ ad gives groupings of people like ‘widows’ and ‘orphans; ‘The Send-Off’ describes a specific group of soldiers and sets a clear scene, with ‘dull porters’ mentioning and a brief narrative where ‘a lamp/winked to the guard’. This particular difference underlines the differing attitudes. ‘The Drum’ vehemently opposes war as a concept, while the ‘pity of war’, that Owen felt is captured more effectively by a specific scene, as pathos is often created through small human details.

Same images to occur in both poems; both describe how the soldiers’ homecomings are with fewer men than left; in ‘The Drum’ women and children are left as ‘widows’ and ‘orphans’ respectively, while in ‘The Send-Off’ only ‘a few shall return.’ The ‘songs’ of ‘The Send-off’ suggest that military songs of the ‘discordant drum’. The styles, poetically, of the two are also similar, if one notes the exception of the rhythm. Both poems rhyme, though the fact that alternate lines rhyme in ‘The Send-Off’ more couples means that it does not have the sense of assured unity to be found in the neat couplets of ‘The Drum’. Figurative devices are employed in both poems, personification of ‘ambition’ and ‘misery’ in Extract A, similes in Extract E, such as ‘their breasts were stuck all white. As men’s are, dead”. However, once again, even here in the consideration of similar poetic devices, differences are clear. ‘Ambition’ and ‘Misery’ are certain emotions, described as clear causes for ‘fighting’ and ‘tears’. The figurative simile comparing the lines to the dead hints at a future possibility on the other hand, and where the repetition of ‘few’ seems to mirror the repetition of ‘’dad’ on ‘round’, one can see that the possibility of there being ‘too few’ soldiers returning is again just that a possibility for it follows a rhetorical question: ‘Shall they return…In wild train loads?’ There are no such questions in ‘The Drum’, which is informing the reader of the horrific ‘slaughter and sacrifice’ of war; but ‘The Send-Off’ is filled with uncertainly. Owen admits ‘we never heard to which front these men were sent’. The ‘dull porters’ and ‘grimly gay’ men do not seem to understand or discuss; the ‘grimness is itself a product of doubt and uncertainly.

Both poems contrast expectations of war and realities. The ‘grimly gay’ soldiers and the ‘thoughtless youth’ are lured by their excitement to ‘sell their liberty’ but instead of ‘charms’ and ‘glittering arms’ receive ‘mangled limbs’ and ‘Misery’. The loving, heroic image, which women have of war, represented by the flowers they send, are ‘mocked’ by reality. This mockery of ‘flowers’ itself mirrors the ‘ravaged plains’ both poems describe nature being despoiled. Rural communities also find destruction in both, ‘burning’ in ‘The Drum’ and by the massacre of population and the loss of familiarity with the roads of home on the path of returning soldiers.

In short, it would be unfair to label Scott’s poem as being more effective. Despite many similarities, the poems have a fundamentally different view Scott is furious and direct in his hatred of the war, Owen is sombre and pitying. If anything, ‘The Send-Off’ is more effective due to its subtlety and pathos. Both, though, reflect, the dread effects of war, which seem to extend even to the format of the poems: the last lines of the two stanzas of Extract A have extra syllables, disrupting the otherwise conventional metre and scheme, while Extract E is shattered into many short stanzas, reflecting the chaos and disruption of the war on the ordinary and orderly.

Part b)
By comparing Extracts B, C and D, and by referring to your wider reading, examine how typical in both style and treatment of subject matter these writings are of literature from or about The First World War.

You should consider:

language, form and structure


the writers' thoughts and feelings about war and contemporary society


the influence of the time of composition


the gender of the writers



Extract B: Blackadder goes Forth
Extract C: Pat Barker ‘The Ghost Road’
Extract D: Sara Teasdale ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’

The three extracts in question represent just part of the huge range of ‘Literature’ about the First World War. The question of connections between these texts and the ‘canon’ of war Literature is intriguing. Extract B certainly appears to be unusual. As a television programme, it has little in common with other literature in terms of form. There have been many films (typically based on novels or plays ‘Regeneration or ‘All quiet on the Western Front’ for example) and documentaries, but very few fictional series based on the war. Perhaps the script format might suggest similarities to war plays, however, like ‘Blackadder’. ‘Journey’s End’ was set in the trenches with a number of stereotypical types of soldiers. One might compare the characters of George to the idealistic, youthful Raleigh George does think of war as ‘brave, splendid and noble’ after all.

On the other hand, Extract C is far more typical as it is a fictional novel. Famous novels on the war were written both by those who had been involved in the war ‘We that were young’ by Irene Rathbone for instance and by later writers Susan Hill’s ‘Strange Meeting’, “Birdsong” and of course the “Regeneration” trilogy from which Extract C is taken.

Extract D, as a poem, represents the form perhaps most often associated with Literature of the war. The words not only of Sassoon and Owen, but of Binyon (His line “We will remember them” forming part of the Remembrance simile), Brooke (with the immortal line: ‘There is some corner of a foreign field, That is forever England”) and others are part of a national consciousness of Literature; the poems of the First World War are known by almost everyone in Britain. Arguably, Teasdale is not one of these best-known war poets, but the form of poetry nevertheless makes her work of ‘typical’ war literature.

The background of the writers is a further point where interesting comparisons may be made. Clearly, ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ was written during the war, as the line: ‘at last when it is done” implies that it was not ‘done’ at the time of writing. Her gender, age and nationality make her atypical of contemporary writers as an old female American she could not be more dissimilar to the young male Englishman who wrote the best known poems in the war. She is not unique, however. An older generation of poets did not write war poems; of note were Kipling and Newbolt, they are writing grieving poems such as Common Form, the other more jingoistic works with line like: ‘Joyful hear the trumpets call’ so there were divisions of opinion among older poets, meaning Teasdale’s primarily anti-war attitude was shared by some, but not all, of the writers in her age group.

Despite popular belief to the contrary, Teasdale was neither unique nor especially uncommon being a female war poet Catherine Reilly discovered many forgotten female war poets in her ‘Scars upon my Heart’ anthology. The works of female poets range from the jingoistic Jessie pope: “Who’ll earn the Empire’s thanks will you my laddie?” to the more sombre works of Margaret Cole, who writes of a blind ‘Veteran’ who is old before his time and employs nature imagery similar to Teasdale’s ‘robins’ and ‘swallows’ when she likens dead soldiers to autumn leavers.

Extract D condemns the futility of the war, which will be unnoticed by ‘frogs’ and ‘rains’, and ‘mankind perishing utterly’ but in itself this views is similar to some contemporary poets surely remarks how ‘great death hath made all his for evermore’, a similar thought to that of ‘mankind perishing utterly’ but the view also contrasts with other poems such as Brooke’s sonnet ‘The Soldier’, which praises ‘an English heaven’ and justifies war and sacrifice through nationalist motifs.

In summary, the attitude of Teasdale’s poem is not exclusively that of her own age group and time, nor do writers of her age, gender and time exclusively share her attitudes. Both ‘The Ghost Road’ and ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ are different because the authors had not been alive during the way. Teasdale, although as a women was less likely to have been at the centre of the military action of the war, was nonetheless aware of the immediacy and consequences of this action on society and humanity. Extracts B and C rely on documentary evidence of these events.

It is not unusual for the pieces to have been written after the war; many novels and plays such as ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ and ‘Not About Heroes’ have been written by people born after 1918. It can be argued that the underlying attitude to the war according to ‘Blackadder’ run by ‘Madman’ while ‘The Ghost Road’ asks rhetorically Shotvarget?’ is especially typical of later literature, which has tended to follow the attitudes of Sassoon and Britain rather than those of Brooke and Newbolt, the epitomy of this condemnation of the war being sarcastically titled ‘Oh What a Lovely War.’

Among modern writers, gender is perhaps less relevant, as male and female authors have equal experiences of the war i.e. none. Extract B was written by men like ‘Birdsong’ was; Extract C was written by a women like ‘Strange meeting’ was. However, despite broad similarities, these are also striking contrasts to be drawn between Extracts B and C. One instance is how fictional the two pieces are and what use has been made of contemporary materials. Both are indeed fictional, as the authors had no personal experience to recall (unlike contemporary autobiographies like Graves and Vera Brittan). However, ‘Blackadder’ relies on generalisations the ‘tiddly-winking leapfroggers’ is an example of a group of friends who signed up together, something which did commonly happen, but the ‘leapfroggers; are a fictional example of such a group. This ‘generalisation technique’ is seen elsewhere Sassoon often calls figures he is satirising by their roles rather than by a proper name, such as ‘The General’ or ‘The Major’.

Extract C, though fictional, uses details that are more specific. The character of Rivers is a real man, described in Graves, the autobiography ‘Goodbye To That. This anchors the pieces more firmly into exploration of known details of the war through fictional accounts. Sassoon and Own are similarly placed in fictional contexts elsewhere in the ‘Regeneration trilogy’ while Haig appears in ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ and indeed elsewhere in the episode of ‘Blackadder’ from which Extract B is taken.

Moving onto address considerations of style and language, further links and contrast are observable. The one obvious one and vital thing to remember about ‘Blackadder’ is the humour, evidenced for instance in the diary entry ‘bugger’ and the dramatic irony of the characters hoping that the war was finished in 1917. The other two extracts are emphatically not funny, nor is much of the literature of the Great War. Nevertheless, Soki’s ‘Carol’ (a traditional Carole changed to include ‘high explosive shell’) and Berridge’s ‘To Arat’ are examples of humour in war literature. Here, the humour is used similar to way to is ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ to create pathos when it is placed alongside lines such as ‘I don’t want to die.

Both ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ and ‘Blackadder’ do use a common device, however in the former, a future time is imagined where ‘Spring and swallows’ have returned while in the latter No men’s lands turns into a field of puppies’. The supremacy and affirmation of life and nature is a common theme. ‘Birdsong’ also contrast ‘a bird singing sweetly’ to the horror and destruction of the war. Owen’s ‘Exposure’ describes a ‘fussing Robin’ and ‘Trickling blossoms’ in the midst of death. Clearly similar to the ‘Whistling robins’ in Extract D. Even works by veterans of the war not normally considered ‘War Literature explore this theme Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ claims that the tasks of Good will not be failed if one living thing shall survive this winter.’

Extract C uses pathos like the other two for instance in the ‘relieves’ of the young girl at death of the organised patient. She also uses rhetorical devices, repeating ‘Shotvarfet’ to emphasis the words. The explicit descriptions of ‘damaged brains and drooping mouths’ are more like the poems ‘Disabled’ and ‘Does it matter’ than the other two extracts, which do not in fact describe suffering other than by mentioning ‘death’. The use of the poetic device of repetition is, however, mirrored in Extract D, where ‘and’ is repeated to suggest the vastness of nature and what will survive. Poetic devices like alliteration mark these two works as consciously ‘literary’, much like the poems of Owen, whose use of alliteration is well known.

‘Blackadder’, however, is more entertaining and was produced as a comedy programme; only the very ending is tragic. It does not use obvious devices like repetition or alliteration. One should not overlook the literary aspects of the text, however. The speech of Darling is marked by an old-fashioned ‘public school’ accent suggested by ‘rather’ and ‘the whole show’ an imitation of what Gurney called a ‘finicking accent’ and reminiscent of the speech patterns in ‘Journey’s End’. The line ‘brave, spending and noble’ and ‘our generals are mad’ respectively reflect Brooke and Sassoon meanwhile. To conclude, it can be clearly seen that while Extract B is atypical in many respects, chiefly in its use of comedy, all three are connected to the literary tradition of the Great War. All three also have a common theme of pointless death in the war, which many poets and writers have emphasised. All three pose the same outraged question, despite there many differences: “Shotvarfet”

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Thanks very much for this, I'll have a read of it in the morning.
Reply 2
I need to read this about a hundred times, I am not prepared at all.

Thanks for typing it all up.
Reply 3
I've been posted that like confetti round the forum, getting pos reps a plenty wherever I put it. :biggrin:
Reply 4
It actually goes against a couple of things my teacher said about structure, etc, but if it got a 40/40, that's what I'm doing!
Reply 5
I know this thread is 6 months old but I am already starting to prepare for unit 6 as it scares me, and so I'd like to bump and rep this thread!

I hope others see this answer, it actually makes me feel much more confident about my capability of passing this exam!
Reply 6
Luce-eeeee
I know this thread is 6 months old but I am already starting to prepare for unit 6 as it scares me, and so I'd like to bump and rep this thread!

I hope others see this answer, it actually makes me feel much more confident about my capability of passing this exam!


Thank you. :smile:
this was soo helpful! ive been looking all over the aqa website for more answers like this but i cant seem to find it anywhere, can anyone give me the link please?
x_LiNk_x
This is the essay from the AQA website, June 2003, which was awarded 40/40.

The only problem with the one on the site is that it is impossible to read, so I typed it up and now hopefully it is more legible. :smile:

Part a)
Basing your answer on Extract A and Extract E, you should:

Write a comparison of the ways the writers present ideas about slaughter and sacrifice.


Say how far you agree with the view that Scott's poem is more effective than Owen's in communicating its message.



Extract A: John Scott ‘The Drum’
Extract E: Wilfred Owen ‘The Send-off”


thanks! i think that will help me with my exam in the summer. i hope to get an A atleast
Despite differences in time, these two poems both take a common stance against the sacrifice of young men in war. ‘The Drum’ is most clearly marked by the intense beat of the lines that echoes that seam to be like the beating of the eponymous drum. The dogmatic metre has a stress on every second syllable, giving emphasis and fierce energy to the delivery on the lines. The repetition of ‘round’ and ‘and’ at the start of lines complement this effect. The content of the poem further contributes to this effect of noise and the relentless delivery of the lines; loud sounds like ‘moans’ and ‘groans’ are described while the direct intervention of Scott’s voice to proclaim ‘I hate’ or call ‘human woes’ allows the poem to directly and ambiguously attack war.

Despite similar attitudes, ‘The Send-Off’ is entirely the opposite in terms of rhythm and descriptions of sound. Lines like ‘Down the close darkening lanes’ are slower and without metre; the ‘darkening’ in fact causes a reader to stumble slightly when reading the line. The poem also specifically denies the loud sounds of the Drum: ‘too few for drums and yells’. Soldiers are ‘silent’ and more ‘like wrongs hushed-up’. The obvious, fervent fury and passion of ‘The Drum’ is entirely absent, which is perhaps why critics might consider it to be an inferior poem. The truth is, though, that the idea of slaughter and sacrifice are delivered in equally powerful ways; but different aspects are explored. The tender, shocked silence of the returning troops is a sign of horror just as much as the ‘tears’ and ‘moans’ of ‘The Drum’

Both oppose war, but Scott is writing a poem to attack, declaring ‘hate’ and calling youth ‘thoughtless’. Owen leaves more unsaid; he does not describe the fate of the dead or wounded, as Scott does when he mentions: ‘Mangled limbs, and dying groans.’ He describes the fate of survivors who are rendered ‘silent’ and left unfamiliar with home; by implication the horrors of war and death must be terrible indeed, if this is what happens to those who survive.

A further difference between Extract A and E is that of how specific the event is that it is being described ‘The Drum’ is quite abstract; it discusses universals like ‘youth’ and ‘foreign lands’ ad gives groupings of people like ‘widows’ and ‘orphans; ‘The Send-Off’ describes a specific group of soldiers and sets a clear scene, with ‘dull porters’ mentioning and a brief narrative where ‘a lamp/winked to the guard’. This particular difference underlines the differing attitudes. ‘The Drum’ vehemently opposes war as a concept, while the ‘pity of war’, that Owen felt is captured more effectively by a specific scene, as pathos is often created through small human details.

Same images to occur in both poems; both describe how the soldiers’ homecomings are with fewer men than left; in ‘The Drum’ women and children are left as ‘widows’ and ‘orphans’ respectively, while in ‘The Send-Off’ only ‘a few shall return.’ The ‘songs’ of ‘The Send-off’ suggest that military songs of the ‘discordant drum’. The styles, poetically, of the two are also similar, if one notes the exception of the rhythm. Both poems rhyme, though the fact that alternate lines rhyme in ‘The Send-Off’ more couples means that it does not have the sense of assured unity to be found in the neat couplets of ‘The Drum’. Figurative devices are employed in both poems, personification of ‘ambition’ and ‘misery’ in Extract A, similes in Extract E, such as ‘their breasts were stuck all white. As men’s are, dead”. However, once again, even here in the consideration of similar poetic devices, differences are clear. ‘Ambition’ and ‘Misery’ are certain emotions, described as clear causes for ‘fighting’ and ‘tears’. The figurative simile comparing the lines to the dead hints at a future possibility on the other hand, and where the repetition of ‘few’ seems to mirror the repetition of ‘’dad’ on ‘round’, one can see that the possibility of there being ‘too few’ soldiers returning is again just that a possibility for it follows a rhetorical question: ‘Shall they return…In wild train loads?’ There are no such questions in ‘The Drum’, which is informing the reader of the horrific ‘slaughter and sacrifice’ of war; but ‘The Send-Off’ is filled with uncertainly. Owen admits ‘we never heard to which front these men were sent’. The ‘dull porters’ and ‘grimly gay’ men do not seem to understand or discuss; the ‘grimness is itself a product of doubt and uncertainly.

Both poems contrast expectations of war and realities. The ‘grimly gay’ soldiers and the ‘thoughtless youth’ are lured by their excitement to ‘sell their liberty’ but instead of ‘charms’ and ‘glittering arms’ receive ‘mangled limbs’ and ‘Misery’. The loving, heroic image, which women have of war, represented by the flowers they send, are ‘mocked’ by reality. This mockery of ‘flowers’ itself mirrors the ‘ravaged plains’ both poems describe nature being despoiled. Rural communities also find destruction in both, ‘burning’ in ‘The Drum’ and by the massacre of population and the loss of familiarity with the roads of home on the path of returning soldiers.

In short, it would be unfair to label Scott’s poem as being more effective. Despite many similarities, the poems have a fundamentally different view Scott is furious and direct in his hatred of the war, Owen is sombre and pitying. If anything, ‘The Send-Off’ is more effective due to its subtlety and pathos. Both, though, reflect, the dread effects of war, which seem to extend even to the format of the poems: the last lines of the two stanzas of Extract A have extra syllables, disrupting the otherwise conventional metre and scheme, while Extract E is shattered into many short stanzas, reflecting the chaos and disruption of the war on the ordinary and orderly.

Part b)
By comparing Extracts B, C and D, and by referring to your wider reading, examine how typical in both style and treatment of subject matter these writings are of literature from or about The First World War.

You should consider:

language, form and structure


the writers' thoughts and feelings about war and contemporary society


the influence of the time of composition


the gender of the writers



Extract B: Blackadder goes Forth
Extract C: Pat Barker ‘The Ghost Road’
Extract D: Sara Teasdale ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’

The three extracts in question represent just part of the huge range of ‘Literature’ about the First World War. The question of connections between these texts and the ‘canon’ of war Literature is intriguing. Extract B certainly appears to be unusual. As a television programme, it has little in common with other literature in terms of form. There have been many films (typically based on novels or plays ‘Regeneration or ‘All quiet on the Western Front’ for example) and documentaries, but very few fictional series based on the war. Perhaps the script format might suggest similarities to war plays, however, like ‘Blackadder’. ‘Journey’s End’ was set in the trenches with a number of stereotypical types of soldiers. One might compare the characters of George to the idealistic, youthful Raleigh George does think of war as ‘brave, splendid and noble’ after all.

On the other hand, Extract C is far more typical as it is a fictional novel. Famous novels on the war were written both by those who had been involved in the war ‘We that were young’ by Irene Rathbone for instance and by later writers Susan Hill’s ‘Strange Meeting’, “Birdsong” and of course the “Regeneration” trilogy from which Extract C is taken.

Extract D, as a poem, represents the form perhaps most often associated with Literature of the war. The words not only of Sassoon and Owen, but of Binyon (His line “We will remember them” forming part of the Remembrance simile), Brooke (with the immortal line: ‘There is some corner of a foreign field, That is forever England”) and others are part of a national consciousness of Literature; the poems of the First World War are known by almost everyone in Britain. Arguably, Teasdale is not one of these best-known war poets, but the form of poetry nevertheless makes her work of ‘typical’ war literature.

The background of the writers is a further point where interesting comparisons may be made. Clearly, ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ was written during the war, as the line: ‘at last when it is done” implies that it was not ‘done’ at the time of writing. Her gender, age and nationality make her atypical of contemporary writers as an old female American she could not be more dissimilar to the young male Englishman who wrote the best known poems in the war. She is not unique, however. An older generation of poets did not write war poems; of note were Kipling and Newbolt, they are writing grieving poems such as Common Form, the other more jingoistic works with line like: ‘Joyful hear the trumpets call’ so there were divisions of opinion among older poets, meaning Teasdale’s primarily anti-war attitude was shared by some, but not all, of the writers in her age group.

Despite popular belief to the contrary, Teasdale was neither unique nor especially uncommon being a female war poet Catherine Reilly discovered many forgotten female war poets in her ‘Scars upon my Heart’ anthology. The works of female poets range from the jingoistic Jessie pope: “Who’ll earn the Empire’s thanks will you my laddie?” to the more sombre works of Margaret Cole, who writes of a blind ‘Veteran’ who is old before his time and employs nature imagery similar to Teasdale’s ‘robins’ and ‘swallows’ when she likens dead soldiers to autumn leavers.

Extract D condemns the futility of the war, which will be unnoticed by ‘frogs’ and ‘rains’, and ‘mankind perishing utterly’ but in itself this views is similar to some contemporary poets surely remarks how ‘great death hath made all his for evermore’, a similar thought to that of ‘mankind perishing utterly’ but the view also contrasts with other poems such as Brooke’s sonnet ‘The Soldier’, which praises ‘an English heaven’ and justifies war and sacrifice through nationalist motifs.

In summary, the attitude of Teasdale’s poem is not exclusively that of her own age group and time, nor do writers of her age, gender and time exclusively share her attitudes. Both ‘The Ghost Road’ and ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ are different because the authors had not been alive during the way. Teasdale, although as a women was less likely to have been at the centre of the military action of the war, was nonetheless aware of the immediacy and consequences of this action on society and humanity. Extracts B and C rely on documentary evidence of these events.

It is not unusual for the pieces to have been written after the war; many novels and plays such as ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ and ‘Not About Heroes’ have been written by people born after 1918. It can be argued that the underlying attitude to the war according to ‘Blackadder’ run by ‘Madman’ while ‘The Ghost Road’ asks rhetorically Shotvarget?’ is especially typical of later literature, which has tended to follow the attitudes of Sassoon and Britain rather than those of Brooke and Newbolt, the epitomy of this condemnation of the war being sarcastically titled ‘Oh What a Lovely War.’

Among modern writers, gender is perhaps less relevant, as male and female authors have equal experiences of the war i.e. none. Extract B was written by men like ‘Birdsong’ was; Extract C was written by a women like ‘Strange meeting’ was. However, despite broad similarities, these are also striking contrasts to be drawn between Extracts B and C. One instance is how fictional the two pieces are and what use has been made of contemporary materials. Both are indeed fictional, as the authors had no personal experience to recall (unlike contemporary autobiographies like Graves and Vera Brittan). However, ‘Blackadder’ relies on generalisations the ‘tiddly-winking leapfroggers’ is an example of a group of friends who signed up together, something which did commonly happen, but the ‘leapfroggers; are a fictional example of such a group. This ‘generalisation technique’ is seen elsewhere Sassoon often calls figures he is satirising by their roles rather than by a proper name, such as ‘The General’ or ‘The Major’.

Extract C, though fictional, uses details that are more specific. The character of Rivers is a real man, described in Graves, the autobiography ‘Goodbye To That. This anchors the pieces more firmly into exploration of known details of the war through fictional accounts. Sassoon and Own are similarly placed in fictional contexts elsewhere in the ‘Regeneration trilogy’ while Haig appears in ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ and indeed elsewhere in the episode of ‘Blackadder’ from which Extract B is taken.

Moving onto address considerations of style and language, further links and contrast are observable. The one obvious one and vital thing to remember about ‘Blackadder’ is the humour, evidenced for instance in the diary entry ‘bugger’ and the dramatic irony of the characters hoping that the war was finished in 1917. The other two extracts are emphatically not funny, nor is much of the literature of the Great War. Nevertheless, Soki’s ‘Carol’ (a traditional Carole changed to include ‘high explosive shell’) and Berridge’s ‘To Arat’ are examples of humour in war literature. Here, the humour is used similar to way to is ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ to create pathos when it is placed alongside lines such as ‘I don’t want to die.

Both ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ and ‘Blackadder’ do use a common device, however in the former, a future time is imagined where ‘Spring and swallows’ have returned while in the latter No men’s lands turns into a field of puppies’. The supremacy and affirmation of life and nature is a common theme. ‘Birdsong’ also contrast ‘a bird singing sweetly’ to the horror and destruction of the war. Owen’s ‘Exposure’ describes a ‘fussing Robin’ and ‘Trickling blossoms’ in the midst of death. Clearly similar to the ‘Whistling robins’ in Extract D. Even works by veterans of the war not normally considered ‘War Literature explore this theme Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ claims that the tasks of Good will not be failed if one living thing shall survive this winter.’

Extract C uses pathos like the other two for instance in the ‘relieves’ of the young girl at death of the organised patient. She also uses rhetorical devices, repeating ‘Shotvarfet’ to emphasis the words. The explicit descriptions of ‘damaged brains and drooping mouths’ are more like the poems ‘Disabled’ and ‘Does it matter’ than the other two extracts, which do not in fact describe suffering other than by mentioning ‘death’. The use of the poetic device of repetition is, however, mirrored in Extract D, where ‘and’ is repeated to suggest the vastness of nature and what will survive. Poetic devices like alliteration mark these two works as consciously ‘literary’, much like the poems of Owen, whose use of alliteration is well known.

‘Blackadder’, however, is more entertaining and was produced as a comedy programme; only the very ending is tragic. It does not use obvious devices like repetition or alliteration. One should not overlook the literary aspects of the text, however. The speech of Darling is marked by an old-fashioned ‘public school’ accent suggested by ‘rather’ and ‘the whole show’ an imitation of what Gurney called a ‘finicking accent’ and reminiscent of the speech patterns in ‘Journey’s End’. The line ‘brave, spending and noble’ and ‘our generals are mad’ respectively reflect Brooke and Sassoon meanwhile. To conclude, it can be clearly seen that while Extract B is atypical in many respects, chiefly in its use of comedy, all three are connected to the literary tradition of the Great War. All three also have a common theme of pointless death in the war, which many poets and writers have emphasised. All three pose the same outraged question, despite there many differences: “Shotvarfet”


thanks. i have my exam in 3 weeks and am ssooooo nervous!
Reply 9
Thaaaank you very very useful!
x_LiNk_x
This is the essay from the AQA website, June 2003, which was awarded 40/40.

The only problem with the one on the site is that it is impossible to read, so I typed it up and now hopefully it is more legible. :smile:

Part a)
Basing your answer on Extract A and Extract E, you should:

Write a comparison of the ways the writers present ideas about slaughter and sacrifice.


Say how far you agree with the view that Scott's poem is more effective than Owen's in communicating its message.



Extract A: John Scott ‘The Drum’
Extract E: Wilfred Owen ‘The Send-off”

Despite differences in time, these two poems both take a common stance against the sacrifice of young men in war. ‘The Drum’ is most clearly marked by the intense beat of the lines that echoes that seam to be like the beating of the eponymous drum. The dogmatic metre has a stress on every second syllable, giving emphasis and fierce energy to the delivery on the lines. The repetition of ‘round’ and ‘and’ at the start of lines complement this effect. The content of the poem further contributes to this effect of noise and the relentless delivery of the lines; loud sounds like ‘moans’ and ‘groans’ are described while the direct intervention of Scott’s voice to proclaim ‘I hate’ or call ‘human woes’ allows the poem to directly and ambiguously attack war.

Despite similar attitudes, ‘The Send-Off’ is entirely the opposite in terms of rhythm and descriptions of sound. Lines like ‘Down the close darkening lanes’ are slower and without metre; the ‘darkening’ in fact causes a reader to stumble slightly when reading the line. The poem also specifically denies the loud sounds of the Drum: ‘too few for drums and yells’. Soldiers are ‘silent’ and more ‘like wrongs hushed-up’. The obvious, fervent fury and passion of ‘The Drum’ is entirely absent, which is perhaps why critics might consider it to be an inferior poem. The truth is, though, that the idea of slaughter and sacrifice are delivered in equally powerful ways; but different aspects are explored. The tender, shocked silence of the returning troops is a sign of horror just as much as the ‘tears’ and ‘moans’ of ‘The Drum’

Both oppose war, but Scott is writing a poem to attack, declaring ‘hate’ and calling youth ‘thoughtless’. Owen leaves more unsaid; he does not describe the fate of the dead or wounded, as Scott does when he mentions: ‘Mangled limbs, and dying groans.’ He describes the fate of survivors who are rendered ‘silent’ and left unfamiliar with home; by implication the horrors of war and death must be terrible indeed, if this is what happens to those who survive.

A further difference between Extract A and E is that of how specific the event is that it is being described ‘The Drum’ is quite abstract; it discusses universals like ‘youth’ and ‘foreign lands’ ad gives groupings of people like ‘widows’ and ‘orphans; ‘The Send-Off’ describes a specific group of soldiers and sets a clear scene, with ‘dull porters’ mentioning and a brief narrative where ‘a lamp/winked to the guard’. This particular difference underlines the differing attitudes. ‘The Drum’ vehemently opposes war as a concept, while the ‘pity of war’, that Owen felt is captured more effectively by a specific scene, as pathos is often created through small human details.

Same images to occur in both poems; both describe how the soldiers’ homecomings are with fewer men than left; in ‘The Drum’ women and children are left as ‘widows’ and ‘orphans’ respectively, while in ‘The Send-Off’ only ‘a few shall return.’ The ‘songs’ of ‘The Send-off’ suggest that military songs of the ‘discordant drum’. The styles, poetically, of the two are also similar, if one notes the exception of the rhythm. Both poems rhyme, though the fact that alternate lines rhyme in ‘The Send-Off’ more couples means that it does not have the sense of assured unity to be found in the neat couplets of ‘The Drum’. Figurative devices are employed in both poems, personification of ‘ambition’ and ‘misery’ in Extract A, similes in Extract E, such as ‘their breasts were stuck all white. As men’s are, dead”. However, once again, even here in the consideration of similar poetic devices, differences are clear. ‘Ambition’ and ‘Misery’ are certain emotions, described as clear causes for ‘fighting’ and ‘tears’. The figurative simile comparing the lines to the dead hints at a future possibility on the other hand, and where the repetition of ‘few’ seems to mirror the repetition of ‘’dad’ on ‘round’, one can see that the possibility of there being ‘too few’ soldiers returning is again just that a possibility for it follows a rhetorical question: ‘Shall they return…In wild train loads?’ There are no such questions in ‘The Drum’, which is informing the reader of the horrific ‘slaughter and sacrifice’ of war; but ‘The Send-Off’ is filled with uncertainly. Owen admits ‘we never heard to which front these men were sent’. The ‘dull porters’ and ‘grimly gay’ men do not seem to understand or discuss; the ‘grimness is itself a product of doubt and uncertainly.

Both poems contrast expectations of war and realities. The ‘grimly gay’ soldiers and the ‘thoughtless youth’ are lured by their excitement to ‘sell their liberty’ but instead of ‘charms’ and ‘glittering arms’ receive ‘mangled limbs’ and ‘Misery’. The loving, heroic image, which women have of war, represented by the flowers they send, are ‘mocked’ by reality. This mockery of ‘flowers’ itself mirrors the ‘ravaged plains’ both poems describe nature being despoiled. Rural communities also find destruction in both, ‘burning’ in ‘The Drum’ and by the massacre of population and the loss of familiarity with the roads of home on the path of returning soldiers.

In short, it would be unfair to label Scott’s poem as being more effective. Despite many similarities, the poems have a fundamentally different view Scott is furious and direct in his hatred of the war, Owen is sombre and pitying. If anything, ‘The Send-Off’ is more effective due to its subtlety and pathos. Both, though, reflect, the dread effects of war, which seem to extend even to the format of the poems: the last lines of the two stanzas of Extract A have extra syllables, disrupting the otherwise conventional metre and scheme, while Extract E is shattered into many short stanzas, reflecting the chaos and disruption of the war on the ordinary and orderly.

Part b)
By comparing Extracts B, C and D, and by referring to your wider reading, examine how typical in both style and treatment of subject matter these writings are of literature from or about The First World War.

You should consider:

language, form and structure


the writers' thoughts and feelings about war and contemporary society


the influence of the time of composition


the gender of the writers



Extract B: Blackadder goes Forth
Extract C: Pat Barker ‘The Ghost Road’
Extract D: Sara Teasdale ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’

The three extracts in question represent just part of the huge range of ‘Literature’ about the First World War. The question of connections between these texts and the ‘canon’ of war Literature is intriguing. Extract B certainly appears to be unusual. As a television programme, it has little in common with other literature in terms of form. There have been many films (typically based on novels or plays ‘Regeneration or ‘All quiet on the Western Front’ for example) and documentaries, but very few fictional series based on the war. Perhaps the script format might suggest similarities to war plays, however, like ‘Blackadder’. ‘Journey’s End’ was set in the trenches with a number of stereotypical types of soldiers. One might compare the characters of George to the idealistic, youthful Raleigh George does think of war as ‘brave, splendid and noble’ after all.

On the other hand, Extract C is far more typical as it is a fictional novel. Famous novels on the war were written both by those who had been involved in the war ‘We that were young’ by Irene Rathbone for instance and by later writers Susan Hill’s ‘Strange Meeting’, “Birdsong” and of course the “Regeneration” trilogy from which Extract C is taken.

Extract D, as a poem, represents the form perhaps most often associated with Literature of the war. The words not only of Sassoon and Owen, but of Binyon (His line “We will remember them” forming part of the Remembrance simile), Brooke (with the immortal line: ‘There is some corner of a foreign field, That is forever England”) and others are part of a national consciousness of Literature; the poems of the First World War are known by almost everyone in Britain. Arguably, Teasdale is not one of these best-known war poets, but the form of poetry nevertheless makes her work of ‘typical’ war literature.

The background of the writers is a further point where interesting comparisons may be made. Clearly, ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ was written during the war, as the line: ‘at last when it is done” implies that it was not ‘done’ at the time of writing. Her gender, age and nationality make her atypical of contemporary writers as an old female American she could not be more dissimilar to the young male Englishman who wrote the best known poems in the war. She is not unique, however. An older generation of poets did not write war poems; of note were Kipling and Newbolt, they are writing grieving poems such as Common Form, the other more jingoistic works with line like: ‘Joyful hear the trumpets call’ so there were divisions of opinion among older poets, meaning Teasdale’s primarily anti-war attitude was shared by some, but not all, of the writers in her age group.

Despite popular belief to the contrary, Teasdale was neither unique nor especially uncommon being a female war poet Catherine Reilly discovered many forgotten female war poets in her ‘Scars upon my Heart’ anthology. The works of female poets range from the jingoistic Jessie pope: “Who’ll earn the Empire’s thanks will you my laddie?” to the more sombre works of Margaret Cole, who writes of a blind ‘Veteran’ who is old before his time and employs nature imagery similar to Teasdale’s ‘robins’ and ‘swallows’ when she likens dead soldiers to autumn leavers.

Extract D condemns the futility of the war, which will be unnoticed by ‘frogs’ and ‘rains’, and ‘mankind perishing utterly’ but in itself this views is similar to some contemporary poets surely remarks how ‘great death hath made all his for evermore’, a similar thought to that of ‘mankind perishing utterly’ but the view also contrasts with other poems such as Brooke’s sonnet ‘The Soldier’, which praises ‘an English heaven’ and justifies war and sacrifice through nationalist motifs.

In summary, the attitude of Teasdale’s poem is not exclusively that of her own age group and time, nor do writers of her age, gender and time exclusively share her attitudes. Both ‘The Ghost Road’ and ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ are different because the authors had not been alive during the way. Teasdale, although as a women was less likely to have been at the centre of the military action of the war, was nonetheless aware of the immediacy and consequences of this action on society and humanity. Extracts B and C rely on documentary evidence of these events.

It is not unusual for the pieces to have been written after the war; many novels and plays such as ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ and ‘Not About Heroes’ have been written by people born after 1918. It can be argued that the underlying attitude to the war according to ‘Blackadder’ run by ‘Madman’ while ‘The Ghost Road’ asks rhetorically Shotvarget?’ is especially typical of later literature, which has tended to follow the attitudes of Sassoon and Britain rather than those of Brooke and Newbolt, the epitomy of this condemnation of the war being sarcastically titled ‘Oh What a Lovely War.’

Among modern writers, gender is perhaps less relevant, as male and female authors have equal experiences of the war i.e. none. Extract B was written by men like ‘Birdsong’ was; Extract C was written by a women like ‘Strange meeting’ was. However, despite broad similarities, these are also striking contrasts to be drawn between Extracts B and C. One instance is how fictional the two pieces are and what use has been made of contemporary materials. Both are indeed fictional, as the authors had no personal experience to recall (unlike contemporary autobiographies like Graves and Vera Brittan). However, ‘Blackadder’ relies on generalisations the ‘tiddly-winking leapfroggers’ is an example of a group of friends who signed up together, something which did commonly happen, but the ‘leapfroggers; are a fictional example of such a group. This ‘generalisation technique’ is seen elsewhere Sassoon often calls figures he is satirising by their roles rather than by a proper name, such as ‘The General’ or ‘The Major’.

Extract C, though fictional, uses details that are more specific. The character of Rivers is a real man, described in Graves, the autobiography ‘Goodbye To That. This anchors the pieces more firmly into exploration of known details of the war through fictional accounts. Sassoon and Own are similarly placed in fictional contexts elsewhere in the ‘Regeneration trilogy’ while Haig appears in ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ and indeed elsewhere in the episode of ‘Blackadder’ from which Extract B is taken.

Moving onto address considerations of style and language, further links and contrast are observable. The one obvious one and vital thing to remember about ‘Blackadder’ is the humour, evidenced for instance in the diary entry ‘bugger’ and the dramatic irony of the characters hoping that the war was finished in 1917. The other two extracts are emphatically not funny, nor is much of the literature of the Great War. Nevertheless, Soki’s ‘Carol’ (a traditional Carole changed to include ‘high explosive shell’) and Berridge’s ‘To Arat’ are examples of humour in war literature. Here, the humour is used similar to way to is ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ to create pathos when it is placed alongside lines such as ‘I don’t want to die.

Both ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ and ‘Blackadder’ do use a common device, however in the former, a future time is imagined where ‘Spring and swallows’ have returned while in the latter No men’s lands turns into a field of puppies’. The supremacy and affirmation of life and nature is a common theme. ‘Birdsong’ also contrast ‘a bird singing sweetly’ to the horror and destruction of the war. Owen’s ‘Exposure’ describes a ‘fussing Robin’ and ‘Trickling blossoms’ in the midst of death. Clearly similar to the ‘Whistling robins’ in Extract D. Even works by veterans of the war not normally considered ‘War Literature explore this theme Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ claims that the tasks of Good will not be failed if one living thing shall survive this winter.’

Extract C uses pathos like the other two for instance in the ‘relieves’ of the young girl at death of the organised patient. She also uses rhetorical devices, repeating ‘Shotvarfet’ to emphasis the words. The explicit descriptions of ‘damaged brains and drooping mouths’ are more like the poems ‘Disabled’ and ‘Does it matter’ than the other two extracts, which do not in fact describe suffering other than by mentioning ‘death’. The use of the poetic device of repetition is, however, mirrored in Extract D, where ‘and’ is repeated to suggest the vastness of nature and what will survive. Poetic devices like alliteration mark these two works as consciously ‘literary’, much like the poems of Owen, whose use of alliteration is well known.

‘Blackadder’, however, is more entertaining and was produced as a comedy programme; only the very ending is tragic. It does not use obvious devices like repetition or alliteration. One should not overlook the literary aspects of the text, however. The speech of Darling is marked by an old-fashioned ‘public school’ accent suggested by ‘rather’ and ‘the whole show’ an imitation of what Gurney called a ‘finicking accent’ and reminiscent of the speech patterns in ‘Journey’s End’. The line ‘brave, spending and noble’ and ‘our generals are mad’ respectively reflect Brooke and Sassoon meanwhile. To conclude, it can be clearly seen that while Extract B is atypical in many respects, chiefly in its use of comedy, all three are connected to the literary tradition of the Great War. All three also have a common theme of pointless death in the war, which many poets and writers have emphasised. All three pose the same outraged question, despite there many differences: “Shotvarfet”


Very helpful mate. It's funny because I only just went through this essay in my class this morning! (although we had a copy of his origninal hand-written paper) Such an epic piece of work indeed lol.
This exam really isnt that bad so I wouldnt worry about it.

I did no wider reading apart from learning quotes from a thread on studentroom and got 120/120. Its all about the grid method follow that and use a bit of intiution and you're all set.
Calum_Magatchu
This exam really isnt that bad so I wouldnt worry about it.

I did no wider reading apart from learning quotes from a thread on studentroom and got 120/120. Its all about the grid method follow that and use a bit of intiution and you're all set.


We shall see... I still don't know how well I've done from my first 1b) essay, which will indicate how ready I am lol. Oh and I love your outrageous arrogance :eek3:
Nah I not being arrogant, just more matter of fact, this exam isnt that bad at all. I found the play/poetry one tricky. This one is much easier than it looks, it's just about saying as much as you possibly can, it's an exercise in impressive sounding running on.
Calum_Magatchu
Nah I not being arrogant, just more matter of fact, this exam isnt that bad at all. I found the play/poetry one tricky. This one is much easier than it looks, it's just about saying as much as you possibly can, it's an exercise in impressive sounding running on.


alright well I have sort of got that impression, as you can practically link any point you want to another significant piece of literature, as I said.. only time will tell.
Reply 15
i am so confused about this unit... what are we actually meant to learn?
i dont know how to structure my answers for the questions, could anyone help me out please? im so stuck :frown:
Reply 16
hmm... this answer seems good. :smile: The thing is, its so diverse, I'm worried that I don't know enough wider reading or whatever. (ok, i really haven't done any, but thats not the point. :tongue:)

Is there, anywhere, a list of useful quotes? I saw someone mention it in a previous post. For instance; for the poetry/play one I'm going to go through and get quotes for different themes, is there this kinda thing for the "wider reading" we are supposed to do?

Also, last question: do we have to quote a lot from our wider reading? or is it ok just to assert things? So, do we have to memorise quotes, or could we just say that Brooke uses patriotism (for instance)?

Thanks
Reply 17
Thank you SO much for this!! I have my exam coming up and I struggle so much with this unit....What has anyone been reading for their wider reading?? We've just been looking at some poems in class....and we read Jorney's End...and then I'm reading Pat Barker's Regneration and am going to attempt Birdsong...
Reply 18
Bump!!
x_LiNk_x
Bump!!


Rightly so, thanks a lot for this. :biggrin: