Adapted with permission from http://www.ms-hall.com/BritLitModern.htm

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WWI POETRY

• Adapted with permission from http//www.ms-hall.co
  m/BritLitModern.htm
• http//www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/natureww1.html
• http//www.worldwar1.com/arm009.htm

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Basic Characteristics

• isolation/loneliness
• mixing of fantasy with nonfiction

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continued

• blurs lines of reality for reader
• loss of the hero in literature
• destruction made possible by technology

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Continued

• stream of consciousness 
• detached, unemotional, humorless
• present tense
• DEHUMANIZATION

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DEHUMANIZATION

• The removal of human qualities such as
  individuality, compassion, or civility
• Making mechanical and routine.
• Dehumanization in poetry is meant to have the
  opposite effect of PERSONIFICATION

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WHY?

• Why all the despair??

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Warfare in WWI was unlike previously

• The combination of
• Trench Warfare
• Gas
• Machine Guns
• British Arrogance
• Led to

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MASSIVE slaughter of young men

• This became known as
• The Lost Generation

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Trench Warfare

• fighting from a network of fortifications dug or
  constructed at or below ground level.
• It developed as a method of warfare after the
  machine gun had become the main battlefield
  weapon.

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Why the trench?

• the machine guns range and firing power made it
  difficult, if not impossible, for troops to move
  easily to new positions
• Artillery fire by land forces also affected the
  ability to maneuver.
• Trenches were dug along battlefield fronts, and
  the resulting trench warfare created a stalemate
  that lasted for most of the war

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Firing and cover trenches

• Firing trenches, from which troops fired weapons
  at the enemy, were backed up by cover trenches,
  which provided a second line of defense in case
  enemy troops overran the firing trench

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Resting off-duty troops lived in dugouts in
support trenches
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.

• Supplies fresh troops were transported to the
  front via a network of reserve communications
  trenches

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The Wiring Party

• When assigned to the wiring party men crept into
  No Mans Land usually under cover of darkness, a
  necessary precaution given the essentially
  unprotected nature of their activities.

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Wiring Party (cont)

• Once there they inserted new wiring posts (6 ft
  in height) ahead of the front trench, either by
  hammering the post with a muffled mallet, or by
  winding the post in the manner of a screw

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• Then, barbed wire was affixed to the post,
  unwound attached to another post, doubled back
  for additional layer of protection

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Men assigned to wiring duties lived in constant
fear of enemy flares, sent up to illuminate an
area of the battlefield as if by daylight.  Men
caught in No Man's Land by such flares would
either freeze until the light of the flare died,
or else (more often) throw themselves instantly
to the ground.  It was not uncommon for enemy
machine gun fire to accompany the sending up of
flares as a precautionary measure.
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GAS! GAS! QUICK, BOYS!

• Gas was considered uncivilized prior to WWI.
• Another example of how WWI was different than
  prior wars
• initially deployed by the French.  However, the
  German army was the first to give serious study
  to the development of chemical weapons and the
  first to use it on a large scale.

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• Within seconds of inhalation, the vapor destroyed
  the victim's respiratory organs, bringing on
  choking attacks. 

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Allied attempts at retaliation

• Once the Allies had recovered from the initial
  shock of the Germans' practical application of
  poison gas warfare, a determination existed to
  exact retaliatory revenge at the earliest
  opportunity.  The British were the first to
  respond.

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(No Transcript)
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RETALIATION at LOOS, France

• On the evening of 24 September 1915, therefore,
  some 400 chlorine gas emplacements were
  established among the British front line around
  Loos.  The gas was released by turning a cock on
  each cylinder.

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• However, releasing gas from cylinders in this
  manner meant that the user had to be wary of wind
  conditions.  It was desirable that a light wind
  exist in the direction of the enemy trenches if
  the wind were to turn however, the biter would be
  bit.

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Failed Retaliation- the Battle of Loos

• In parts of the British line that morning this is
  precisely what transpired.
• The wind shifted and quantities of the smoke and
  gas were blown back into the British trenches. 
  It has been estimated that more British gas
  casualties were suffered that morning than
  German.

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MUSTARD GAS

• Mustard gas, an almost odorless chemical, was
  distinguished by the serious blisters it caused
  both internally and externally, brought on
  several hours after exposure.  Protection against
  mustard gas proved more difficult than against
  either chlorine or phosgene gas.

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The Early Machine Gun

• early machine guns seemed ineffective and
  unnecessary to British Army

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Early Machine Guns (cont)

• guns jammed frequently, especially in hot
  conditions or when used by inexperienced
  operators
• rapidly overheated and become inoperative without
  the aid of cooling mechanisms. 

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• BUTa single machine gun was worth as many as
  60-100 rifles

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To their DETRIMENT

• the British army high command could see no real
  use for the machine gun
• officers even regarded the weapon as an improper
  form of warfare.

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YIKES

• opening day of the offensive at Somme, the
  British suffered a record number of single day
  casualties 60,000,
• the great majority lost due to machine gun fire.

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Unfortunately

• This lesson was lost on the British High Command
• they continued to send many of the infantry out
  of the trenches unprepared to go up against the
  Machine Gun.