Revision notes
SHEERS: Skirrid Hill
Mametz Wood
Mametz Wood is Sheers’ envisionment of the 1916 Battle of Mametz Wood and a commemoration of
the Welsh soldiers, highlighting their power in silence but their poignant voicelessness.
Title
- the attack on Mametz Wood during the First Battle of the Somme
- a commemoration of Welsh soldiers who apparently weren’t trained well
Analysis
Stanza 1:
- ‘for years’; ‘even now’; ‘this morning’ time phrases reflect history and passage of time
- ‘farmers found them’ soft fricatives emphasise the delicate, genuine care by the pastoral
- ‘the wasted young’ aphorism reflective
- ‘turning’ ‘tended’ semantic field of movement juxtaposes soft poignancy; Sheers glazes over the
gory specifics
- ‘plough blades’ a euphemism for death, yet farming is a source of new life; Sheers is conflicted
between bucolic, rural pastoral beauty and inevitable death
Stanza 2:
- ‘bone’ ‘china plate’ ‘relic’ artefacts portray a semantic field of history
- ‘china plate of a shoulder blade’ metaphor for the delicacy and fragility of human life
- ‘blown/ and broken bird’s egg of a skull’ metaphor for birth juxtaposes semantic field of death,
heightened by harsh plosives
Stanza 3:
- ‘flint’ ‘field’ fricatives juxtapose previous harsh plosives
- ‘told to walk, not run’ comma creates a slow pause, mimicking the oral speech, and there is an
irony: the soldiers will die inevitably
- ‘nesting machine guns’ oxymoron for birth against war symbolises natural against moral evil
Stanza 4:
- ‘earth stands sentinel’ personification of nature, oxymoron, sibilance creates a soft undertone of
grief
- ‘wound’ ‘surface of the skin’ biological imagery connotes that a soldier’s ascribed place is the
battlefield rather than their lives
Stanza 5:
- ‘linked arm in arm’ clichéd, questioning whether patriotism or obedience – fraternal
comradeship
- ‘paused’ repeated time phrase but less resolute, more liminal, highlighting the soldiers’
importance
- ‘mid dance-macabre’ gentler poetic language for the dance of skeletons
Stanza 6:
SHEERS: Skirrid Hill
Mametz Wood
Mametz Wood is Sheers’ envisionment of the 1916 Battle of Mametz Wood and a commemoration of
the Welsh soldiers, highlighting their power in silence but their poignant voicelessness.
Title
- the attack on Mametz Wood during the First Battle of the Somme
- a commemoration of Welsh soldiers who apparently weren’t trained well
Analysis
Stanza 1:
- ‘for years’; ‘even now’; ‘this morning’ time phrases reflect history and passage of time
- ‘farmers found them’ soft fricatives emphasise the delicate, genuine care by the pastoral
- ‘the wasted young’ aphorism reflective
- ‘turning’ ‘tended’ semantic field of movement juxtaposes soft poignancy; Sheers glazes over the
gory specifics
- ‘plough blades’ a euphemism for death, yet farming is a source of new life; Sheers is conflicted
between bucolic, rural pastoral beauty and inevitable death
Stanza 2:
- ‘bone’ ‘china plate’ ‘relic’ artefacts portray a semantic field of history
- ‘china plate of a shoulder blade’ metaphor for the delicacy and fragility of human life
- ‘blown/ and broken bird’s egg of a skull’ metaphor for birth juxtaposes semantic field of death,
heightened by harsh plosives
Stanza 3:
- ‘flint’ ‘field’ fricatives juxtapose previous harsh plosives
- ‘told to walk, not run’ comma creates a slow pause, mimicking the oral speech, and there is an
irony: the soldiers will die inevitably
- ‘nesting machine guns’ oxymoron for birth against war symbolises natural against moral evil
Stanza 4:
- ‘earth stands sentinel’ personification of nature, oxymoron, sibilance creates a soft undertone of
grief
- ‘wound’ ‘surface of the skin’ biological imagery connotes that a soldier’s ascribed place is the
battlefield rather than their lives
Stanza 5:
- ‘linked arm in arm’ clichéd, questioning whether patriotism or obedience – fraternal
comradeship
- ‘paused’ repeated time phrase but less resolute, more liminal, highlighting the soldiers’
importance
- ‘mid dance-macabre’ gentler poetic language for the dance of skeletons
Stanza 6:
