How to teach a successful World War I poetry unit
It seems like all English teachers can name some texts they loved as sensitive college students, which later bedeviled them as they tried to teach it to high school students. “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen was one of those for me. When I first read it, I was moved by the graphic imagery and the ingenious twist in the final stanza, intensified by the end rhymes:
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
It’s a moving read, for sure, but when I became a teacher, I was unsure of how to build a lesson out of “Dulce et Decorum Est” and other texts categorized as “World War I Poetry.” When I was starting out, I felt like I was alternately overemphasizing the horrors of war or spending too much time on boring analysis exercises like identifying every simile and metaphor. Eventually, I landed on an approach that balanced the historical information, perspectives of multiple poets, and literary elements. Most importantly, I helped students recognize poems by both soldiers and civilians as purposeful communications that influenced public perceptions of the war.
So if you’re pulling together a World War I poetry unit, see if can identify with any of the following challenges that used to trip me up, and learn about the approaches and resources that helped me get to a cohesive unit of study!
Challenge #1: You feel like you need to teach a whole history unit before you start the poems.
World War I isn’t a major focus of most Social Studies classes in the U.S., so you might feel like you need to provide a lot of context at the start of your unit. I thought it might increase engagement to show how the poets were writing about real experiences, but it seemed like the extra detail took the gloom too far before we even started reading. I also found that it took too much time away from what English class is all about: building skills in reading, writing, and thinking. All of that background info didn’t change much about how students interpreted the poems.
Eventually, I distilled the info into just a few slides about what incited World War I and why so many countries got involved. I also showed students some British military recruitment posters, which used tactics like guilting young men into defending their country and portraying war as an adventure. Analyzing how the posters were powerfully persuasive communications sets up students to recognize how the poems represent a disillusioned response to propaganda.
Related resource:
World War I Poetry Introductory Slides
Challenge #2: There are so many poets and poems that it’s hard to know which ones to choose.
I started out teaching nearly all of the poems I could find by soldiers who fought in World War I. This was partly because I thought it was necessary to show a complete picture and partly because I was trying to stretch out the unit for at least a week. However, many of the poems are very brief, vague, and, to put it bluntly, aren’t that well-written. There wasn’t much to analyze, and it started to feel repetitive when most of them were making the point that war is horrific.
My unit felt stronger when I kept it more concise and chose poems that represented different points of view. Comparing and contrasting poems from the following five authors has been thought-provoking for students:
Rupert Brooke: Brooke was wealthy, well-connected in the literary scene, and known for his patriotic poetry. He didn’t experience trench warfare because he was involved in a naval operation in the Mediterranean. However, he died from an infected mosquito bite during his military service. Essential poem: “The Soldier”
Siegfried Sassoon: Sassoon was wounded in combat and over time came to believe the war was senseless. He protested against the war in his poetry and letters to military officials, even though it led to him being court-martialed. Essential poems: “How to Die” and “The Survivors”
Wilfred Owen: Owen employed graphic imagery to represent the traumatic absurdity of the ways new military technologies including poison gas and machine guns were killing millions of people. Essential poems: “Dulce et Decorum Est” and “Disabled”
Jessie Pope: Pope wrote patriotic, cheerful poems that pressured men to seek honor and adventure through military service. Essential poems: “Who’s for the Game?” and “War Girls”
Helen Hamilton: Hamilton wrote an angry rebuttal to Pope and other women who shamed men into fighting. Essential poem: “The Jingo Woman”
I think students learn the most from these eight poems by using the same, simple approach to analyze each one instead of picking out every individual poetic device. I settled on having students 1) identify notable imagery in each poem and the emotional impact it makes and 2) consider what each poem might be intended to get readers to notice, believe, and do. This consistent approach makes it easier to recognize each poem’s purpose and strengthens students’ skills for analyzing all types of communications.
Related resource:
World War I Poetry Analysis Questions and Poem Texts
Challenge #3: You and your students feel uncomfortable with having to make profound statements about war.
I’ve tried wrap-up assignments that required students to write from the perspectives of people who experienced World War I as soldiers and civilians, but I was never satisfied with the results. For many students, this kind of imaginative writing was unnatural, or it seemed cheesy to them and I could tell they just wanted to get it over with. I also became convinced that it didn’t accomplish much in the way of skill-building.
Although I wanted students to find World War I poetry memorable, I realized that assignments that basically required them to comment on the atrocious effects of war didn’t make for a better unit of study. Instead, I think it’s more helpful to keep emphasizing how these poems were meant to function as communications that would influence public opinion. Now, I have a straightforward writing assignment: students identify which of the poems they find most attention-getting (even if it’s not in a likable way) and explain with reasoning from the text. I think this approach keeps the writing closer to what students have to deal with in terms of real life media literacy issues as they encounter communications from parties such as advertisers, influencers, universities, potential employers, and today’s military.
Related resource:
World War I Poetry Writing Assignment
In conclusion
Although World War I poetry is a common component of the British literature curriculum, it can still be puzzling about how to make a unit of study out of it given the complex historical context, number of relevant poems that could be included, and sensitive subject matter.
After lots of trial and error, I recommend this:
Provide just enough historical context to get grounded. Share some WWI military recruitment posters so students have a sense of the expectations that were created for young men about service. Note how the experiences portrayed in the poems contrast with the posters’ messages.
Present a handful of poets with varying POVs. Compare the purposes of their communications. Get students to examine how the poets used creative writing to reach people during this difficult era. But keep it all moving along. You can get the point across with 2–3 days’ worth of poems.
Don’t expect students to make grand statements about war or push them too hard to make personal connections. It might seem like a good way to build empathy, but for many students it can feel like a hollow exercise. Instead, conclude your unit by reinforcing understandings about how and why the poems capture readers’ attention.
You can find my introductory slides, analysis questions and poem packet, and writing assignment within my World War I Poetry Resource Bundle on TpT. All the background info, poems, and materials you need to teach a successful unit are right there!
