To Whom It May Concern
I was run over by the truth one day.
Ever since the accident I've walked this way
So stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
Heard the alarm clock screaming with pain,
Couldn't find myself so I went back to sleep again
So fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
Every time I shut my eyes all I see is flames.
Made a marble phone book and I carved out all the names
So coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
I smell something burning, hope it's just my brains.
They're only dropping peppermints and daisy-chains
So stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
Where were you at the time of the crime?
Down by the Cenotaph drinking slime
So chain my tongue with whisky
Stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
You put your bombers in, you put your conscience out,
You take the human being and you twist it all about
So scrub my skin with women
Chain my tongue with whisky
Stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
-- Adrian Mitchell
Questions
1: When i read this poem I feel sad, like I was in this mans shoes. How he describes what he is feeling comes across as very clear and the poem makes me feel almost guilty for letting him go to war and putting him through this, even though I had nothing to do with it. The man is suffering even after the war and he can't get rid of the images and memories and it makes me feel sorry for him.
2:The poem is about a man who fought in the Vietnam war and he can't get the images, smells, feelings and memories out of his head.As the song goes on another element is added to the poem.In the last stanza there are the senses and how he tries to explain how he could get rid of them. Every one of the senses is there and this shows how much the war has affected him.
3: scrub my skin
Chain my tongue
Stuff my nose
Coat my eyes
Fill my ears
Stick my legs
These are descriptive words used in the poem.They are effective because scrub,chain,stuff,coat,fill and stick are not particularly nice words and how he is feeling isn't nice at all.This adds a certain dark mood to the poem.
4:I think the poet tried to achieve by writing this poem was understanding, by the people who were not involved in the war.'Tell me lies about Vietnam' is how he expresses that the war in Vietnam was horrific and tragic and you would have to lie to say anything else.The descriptive words used in the poem help get across to the reader how this man is feeling and I when I read the poem I thought it came across very well as I could see what lengths he would have to go to in order to forget everything he went through.
5: I smell something burning, hope it's just my brains.
They're only dropping peppermints and daisy-chains
So stuff my nose with garlic
I chose these lines because they created imagery for me.The poet is trying to say that he would rather be going crazy than believe what was really going on.He tried to make the situation better by imaging he was somewhere else,somewhere were only peppermints and daisy chains were falling.He chose these words because they are nice smelling and what he was smelling that was burning was probably bodies.In order to get rid of the smell you would have to stuff your nose with garlic.
6: The first two lines in each stanza rhyme.
7: This adds to the overall effect of the poem by using rhyming words that are easy to remember, such as day-way,crime-slime etc. Personally, I find rhyming poems easier to remember and I don't find them as difficult to read and then I can focus more :D
8:I haven't heard this poem before but I really liked it and that is why I have chosen to analyse it.
9:I liked this poem because I really enjoyed reading about what he had to do to get rid of the memories of war.I thought it was interesting and even though he wouldn't actually do it it helped me understand how extreme the situation was.This helped me fell like I could relate to the story more without actually being the poet.
10: This poem creates images in my head or a man with broken legs, trying to escape from this past by covering his ears with thick silver to block out the sound.Covering his eyes with butter so he can't see whats really happening,stuffing his nose with garlic to mask the horrible smell he can remember, getting the taste off his tongue buy guzzling down whisky.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Poetry Circles (:
GRENADIER
The Queen she sent to look for me,
The sergeant he did say,
`Young man, a soldier will you be
For thirteen pence a day?'
For thirteen pence a day did I
Take off the things I wore,
And I have marched to where I lie,
And I shall march no more.
My mouth is dry, my shirt is wet,
My blood runs all away,
So now I shall not die in debt
For thirteen pence a day.
To-morrow after new young men
The sergeant he must see,
For things will all be over then
Between the Queen and me.
And I shall have to bate my price,
For in the grave, they say,
Is neither knowledge nor device
Nor thirteen pence a day.
A. E. Housman
QUESTIONS
1: This poem makes me feel sad for the soldiers because they are only getting a very small amount of money to go away and fight.I don't feel that 13 pence is enough money for a life.
2:It is about the deal between a solider and the queen. Each solider receives 13 pence a day to fight in the war.It is about how the soldiers basically received nothing in return for their lives and the queen just made an offer so it may have persuaded them to fight.
3:My mouth is dry, my shirt is wet. These words describe how he feels before he dies. His mouth is dry and his shirt is wet with blood.
4:I think the poet is trying to tell the reader that the queen didn't give then a lot of credit for their duties as solders and gave them very little.It may also be saying how the soldiers were just used by the queen to fight for their nation, if the young boy didn't have much oney to begin with maybe 13 pence was a good pay for him and he felt that he had to accept.
5:For thirteen pence a day did I
Take off the things I wore,
And I have marched to where I lie,
And I shall march no more.
I chose this stanza because even though the soldiers weren't getting paid a lot, he still felt that it was his duty to fight. The solider did and he ended up dying for his country.
6:Yes it does rhyme
7:I think the rhyme in this poem adds to the overall effect because the words get stuck in my head. I think rhyme is a good way to make the reader think about the poetry more.
8: no I have not
9:Yes I did, because I thought it was a clever way to get the message across to the reader about how the queen didn't really seem to care about the soliders and that she just gave them as little as she could.
10:The imagery created from the poem is a dead boy , in a blood covered shirt who is looking back on his life and wondering is those 13 pence a day were really worth it.
gren⋅a⋅dier –noun (in the British army) a member of the first regiment of household infantry (Grenadier Guards).
The Queen she sent to look for me,
The sergeant he did say,
`Young man, a soldier will you be
For thirteen pence a day?'
For thirteen pence a day did I
Take off the things I wore,
And I have marched to where I lie,
And I shall march no more.
My mouth is dry, my shirt is wet,
My blood runs all away,
So now I shall not die in debt
For thirteen pence a day.
To-morrow after new young men
The sergeant he must see,
For things will all be over then
Between the Queen and me.
And I shall have to bate my price,
For in the grave, they say,
Is neither knowledge nor device
Nor thirteen pence a day.
A. E. Housman
QUESTIONS
1: This poem makes me feel sad for the soldiers because they are only getting a very small amount of money to go away and fight.I don't feel that 13 pence is enough money for a life.
2:It is about the deal between a solider and the queen. Each solider receives 13 pence a day to fight in the war.It is about how the soldiers basically received nothing in return for their lives and the queen just made an offer so it may have persuaded them to fight.
3:My mouth is dry, my shirt is wet. These words describe how he feels before he dies. His mouth is dry and his shirt is wet with blood.
4:I think the poet is trying to tell the reader that the queen didn't give then a lot of credit for their duties as solders and gave them very little.It may also be saying how the soldiers were just used by the queen to fight for their nation, if the young boy didn't have much oney to begin with maybe 13 pence was a good pay for him and he felt that he had to accept.
5:For thirteen pence a day did I
Take off the things I wore,
And I have marched to where I lie,
And I shall march no more.
I chose this stanza because even though the soldiers weren't getting paid a lot, he still felt that it was his duty to fight. The solider did and he ended up dying for his country.
6:Yes it does rhyme
7:I think the rhyme in this poem adds to the overall effect because the words get stuck in my head. I think rhyme is a good way to make the reader think about the poetry more.
8: no I have not
9:Yes I did, because I thought it was a clever way to get the message across to the reader about how the queen didn't really seem to care about the soliders and that she just gave them as little as she could.
10:The imagery created from the poem is a dead boy , in a blood covered shirt who is looking back on his life and wondering is those 13 pence a day were really worth it.
gren⋅a⋅dier –noun (in the British army) a member of the first regiment of household infantry (Grenadier Guards).
World War Two
NOTES
-1939 to 1945
-Invlolved most of the worlds nations
-most widespread war in history
-most countries involved shared a united effort aimed at ending the aggression of the Axis Powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan
Events
March 13, 1938 Germany annexes Austria
October 7–10 Germany takes Czech region of Sudetenland
August 23, 1939 German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
September 1 Germany invades Poland
September 3 Britain and France declare war on Germany
September 17 USSR invades Poland from the east
September 19 German and Soviet forces meet in central Poland
September 28 Warsaw falls to Germany
November 30 Soviet forces invade Finland
As this war involved so many nations I think most people would be devestated to see their friends and maybe families fight.It would have been very hard to deal with the fact that there was a war on and I think fear was very common.
-1939 to 1945
-Invlolved most of the worlds nations
-most widespread war in history
-most countries involved shared a united effort aimed at ending the aggression of the Axis Powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan
Events
March 13, 1938 Germany annexes Austria
October 7–10 Germany takes Czech region of Sudetenland
August 23, 1939 German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
September 1 Germany invades Poland
September 3 Britain and France declare war on Germany
September 17 USSR invades Poland from the east
September 19 German and Soviet forces meet in central Poland
September 28 Warsaw falls to Germany
November 30 Soviet forces invade Finland
As this war involved so many nations I think most people would be devestated to see their friends and maybe families fight.It would have been very hard to deal with the fact that there was a war on and I think fear was very common.
Monday, February 1, 2010
War Poem
People turned against each other,
Children on the search for cover,
Why should man want to inflict such pain,
With bullets,grenades and acid rain,
People in trenches and behind barbed wire fences,
Soldiers run into deadly fire,
hoping that they can inspire,
New recruits to help them shoot through the bodies of their enemies,
A life for a life.
Children on the search for cover,
Why should man want to inflict such pain,
With bullets,grenades and acid rain,
People in trenches and behind barbed wire fences,
Soldiers run into deadly fire,
hoping that they can inspire,
New recruits to help them shoot through the bodies of their enemies,
A life for a life.
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