1. World War One Poetry.
L/O: Learning to understand the
importance of context to poetry
2. Copy the statements and add a score out of five depending
on your confidence with the subject (5 = really confident)
1. I can identify similes and metaphors.
2. I can identify enjambment and alliteration in poems.
3. I know the effect of similes and metaphors.
4. I can write about poems using pee.
5. I can explain why the context of a poem is important to
the understanding of the poem.
6. I can compare two poems confidently.
7. I can explain the different purposes of a poem using
evidence to support my ideas.
8. I can evaluate a poem and justify my views using
evidence.
3. Revision of poetic terms: Draw in
back of book.
Poetic term Definition
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Enjambment
Alliteration
Stanza
Onomatopoeia
4. The context of WW1
• What do you know about WW1?
• In pairs make a list of any information that
you know.
(5min)
5. Some information
• 1914-1918
• Fought between Germany and England/France/
Belgium and other Allied countries.
• Mainly fought in Trenches.
• British war dead:
• About 880,000 men from the United Kingdom,
plus a further 200,000 from other countries in
the British Empire and Commonwealth.
German dead: approximately 1,808,000
8. The men were convinced to fight
through effective propaganda.
How are these
effective?
9. Now read the poem
‘Who’s for the game’ (Jessie Pope)
• Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played,
The red crashing game of a fight?
Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid?
And who thinks he’d rather sit tight?
Who’ll toe the line for the signal to ‘Go!’?
Who’ll give his country a hand?
Who wants a turn to himself in the show?
And who wants a seat in the stand?
Who knows it won’t be a picnic – not much-
Yet eagerly shoulders a gun?
Who would much rather come back with a crutch
Than lie low and be out of the fun?
Come along, lads –
But you’ll come on all right –
For there’s only one course to pursue,
Your country is up to her neck in a fight,
And she’s looking and calling for you.
10. Who’s for the game?
• In pairs decide how this poem persuades
people to join up:
• Do you think that it successfully achieves
its purpose? How?
• Who is this poem targeting?
• What does it compare war to and how?
• Which techniques can you find?
11. Choose one of the following:
• Either write your own enlisting
poem/verse.
• Or
• Design your own Recruiting poster based
around the ideas in the poem.
