Edward Thomas-AS Level English Literature

AS THE TEAM'S HEAD BRASS BY EDWARD THOMAS
As The Team’s Head-Brass is set in English countryside although the war was taking place in France and Belgium. The poet Edward Thomas was an English Soldier in the war and wrote the poem while he was home on leave.
The poem is about a team of horses and a farmer ploughing his fields ready for the spring. However there is a deeper meaning to the poem. It is symbolising the war although it is hardly mentioned at all. Each year the farmer plants new crops, grows them, harvests them and then ploughs his fields. This, as well as the lovers, symbolises rebirth and shows that after the war new ones will replace all the people that were lost.
Half way through the poem there is a dialogue where Thomas and the farmer discuss the war: “In France they killed him. It was back in March, The very night of the blizzard, too. Now if he had stayed here we should have moved the tree.”
This shows the effects of the war on the people still in England. They need the men that have been lost in the war. It helps to show how destructive the war was on the English society.
The mood of Edward Thomas is reflected in the poem by the calm, sombre rhythm. Now that he is home from war he can see the effects that the war has caused. The style of the poem also reflects the mood. The poem is just one long section of writing. It has no rhyme, which makes it slow. The conversation in the middle of the poem also slows it down.
The Mood of the poem is gloomy and sad: “Only two teams work on the farm this year. One of my mates is dead.”
The way he says that one of his friends has died so casually in the conversation only emphasises the sadness that the war has created. To say that one of his friends has died seems so ordinary because of all of the death that has taken place during the war.
Edward Thomas knew what the war was like because he was an officer. He had seen first hand all of the death and suffering that had gone on. He doesn’t try to glorify the war: “I could spare an arm. I shouldn’t want too lose a leg. If I should lose my head, why, so, I should want nothing more….”
Thomas knows that he may die in the war and that a lot of people do. However he knows that he needs to fight in the war to protect his friends and his country. He is very up-front about the possibility of losing a limb or his life. This shows the raw brutality of the war.
They discuss how valuable the war was. It seems bad but perhaps if they could see the whole picture maybe there was some good to be had out of it. The elm tree echoes the fallen dead of the war, as do the clods that the ploughshare turns over. The blizzard and the flashing baled of the ploughshare echo the destructiveness of war. it also indicates the effect of the war on rural life with young men not being able to work the fields anymore.