Internet Assignment

World War II Art and Poetry

Directions: Click on the Image above to view John Singer Sargent’s painting “Gassed” and read the poem “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen. You may also listen to the Poem “Dulce et Decorum est” by clicking the speaker image in the right corner of the painting. Read the poem “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke. Complete the three assignments below.

Assignment 1: Complete an image analysis worksheet after studying John Singer Sargent’s painting “Gassed”

Assignment 2: Answer the following questions about “The Soldier” and “Dulce et Decorum est”:

Reflective Questions: “The Soldier”

1. What are Brooke’s thoughts of his home land?

2. In Brooke’s thinking, what is it that England gave to him?

3. How are we to think of “the soldier” at his end?

4. What are the lessons to be learned from this poem for each of us?

Reflective Questions: “Dulce et Decorum est”

1. What is the meaning of “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”?

2. How does Owen point to the human exhaustion experienced by soldiers in the first stanza of the poem?

3. How does Owen relate the experience of being gassed?  How does he interrupt for the reader of his poem, the death of a soldier who dies as a result of being gassed?  How do Owen’s words speak profoundly to the reality of war?

4. What feeling does Owen leave you with regarding the “sweetness and honor” of die for one’s country?

Compare and Contrast

1. Which poem celebrates war as a noble and heroic cause? Explain

2. Which poem shows the reality and tragedy of war? Explain

3. Which poem was written early in the War and which was written later in the War?

4. Rupert Brooke died early in World War I. If he had lived until the end of the war and seen it’s horrors do think his poetry would have changed?     

Assignment 3: Write a poem or a letter from the front as if you are a soldier in World War I.