World War I Poetry



All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Independent Reading Guide

Background: This guide is designed to:

a. Help you better understand the basic plot of All Quiet on the Western Front

b. Help you analyze Remarque’s feelings about the effect war has on the generation who fights in it

Directions: Before you read a chapter, read the focus statements and questions. Check your comprehension of a chapter by answering any questions that are included. Avoid reading all of the focus questions at once; otherwise, you’ll reveal too much of the plot. You will not turn in the answers to these questions because they are solely designed to help you improve your comprehension. However, if you can answer the questions you will do well on any pop-quizzes or reading checks we will have in class during this unit. Remember, you can’t become a better reader if you don’t want to become one. Make the most of this activity; your brain will thank you! Note: We will use these as discussion questions.

The Author: Remarque was a WWI veteran, and wounded 5 times during the war. Most of his novels are about how war wrecks youth.

Translator: Your book was translated by A.H. Wheen, a Brittish man, so there will be many non-American English spellings – i.e. flavour instead of flavor, or strange words for our common ones – i.e. lorry instead of truck

The Preface: Consider as you read the preface and the book that this generation of men was called the “lost generation.”

Chapter 1 Be ready to cite examples of how Remarque describes the horror and waste of war juxtaposed to nature and its innocence.

Chapter 2 Be ready to cite examples of how Remarque has characterized Paul Baumer, and how the stress of being on the front makes the men’s moods erratic.

Chapter 3 Be ready to explain how the men feel about Kat, and what Himmelstoss has done to deserve the hate the boys feel for him. Reflect on how the desire to get back on Himmelstoss lowers the boys to his level.

Chapter 4 Dramatic Irony occurs when what you know about a situation is greater, or more complete, than the characters’ understanding. We know the Germans loose the war, but the boys don’t know this. Be ready to cite examples of how dramatic irony and the use of imagery heighten the tension in the story leading to your understanding that bad things will happen.

Chapter 5 Consider how Remarque brings humor into this chapter. Be ready to cite examples of the humor and be able to explain what makes it funny.

Chapter 6 Draw a picture, or series of pictures, of one of the following: war juxtaposed to nature as portrayed in this chapter; the bad conditions in the dugouts so close to the front line; parallels of the rats and men; the allied soldiers response to saw-edged bayonets.

Chapter 7 Melodrama is marked by the use of stereotyped characters, exaggerated behavior and emotions, simplistic morality and conflict. Mentally note as you read the melodrama in this chapter. Be ready to share your impressions and examples in class.

Chapter 8 Once again, Remarque juxtaposes images of the innocence and beauty of nature, with surrounding conditions that are neither innocent nor beautiful. However, this time the natural images also have ghost or spirit- like overtones. Be ready to cite examples of this “ghostly” imagery.

Chapter 9 At the end of this chapter, Paul dismissively says “After all, war is war.” Be prepared to answer the following question in class. Do Paul’s actions match his words?

Chapter 10 Be ready to cite specific examples that show Paul has seen yet another way the war is a waste, and explain how this furthers his alienation from civilian life.

Chapter 11 Think about the many ways Paul’s life has been crushed by the war. Mentally note the images that Paul uses to describe war, and the injustices suffered by the soldiers. We will discuss this in class.

Chapter 12 First of all, reflect on who’s left from Paul’s original group. Secondly, notice how the story rapidly became less objective and more details are left out of the descriptions. Finally, notice how Remarque switches from the 1st person to the 3rd person at the end of the novel. Why would Remarque employ these tactics? How do these tactics reinforce what Remarque is trying to convey?

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

STUDY GUIDE CHAPTER QUESTIONS

For each chapter, answer 5 in complete sentences, using the wording from the question in your answer. Each question is worth 2 points: 1 for grammatical/spelling correctness, 1 for answering the question completely (vague answers will earn a zero). Study guides will be collected in 4 chapter increments: Chapters 1-4, 5-8, 9-12. If you fail to separate these questions you will be expected to redo them for credit as you will not receive credit for them.

Chapter 1:

1. Where are the men “at rest”?

2. Why is there such an abundance of rations?

3. Why do the men feel hostile toward Ginger?

4. What is unusual about the latrine facilities?

5. What has changed about these men?

6. Who is Kantorek?

7. Why does Muller wish Kantorek were there?

8. What different attitudes about war were held by the “poor and simple” and those “better off”?

9. What is the double horror of Behm’s death?

10. What is Muller’s plan for Kemmerich’s boots? Do you think this is cruel?

11. Why is Kantorek wrong in referring to these young men as “Iron Youth”?

12. Why is Paul bitter in his feelings word Kantorek?

Chapter 2:

1. What did Paul often do in the evenings before the war?

2. How do Paul and the other young men differ from the older soldiers?

3. What did the men learn as new recruits?

4. What were they forced to do in training camp?

5. Describe Corporal Himmelstoss.

6. How did the men finally get Himmelstoss to leave them alone?

7. What attributes did the men gain from the training?

8. What does death look like in Franz Kemmerich?

9. What is the doctor’s and orderly’s attitude toward Kemmerich’s death?

10. Why does Paul run away from the hospital? What does he feel?

Chapter 3:

1. Why is it ironic that Paul and his comrades refer to themselves as “stone-age

veterans” when they compare themselves to the new recruits?

2. Describe Katczinsky. What is his special talent?

3. What is Kat’s philosophy of war? What is Kropp’s philosophy of war?

4. Why does the author expand and discuss these philosophies?

5. What is Kropp’s philosophy concerning power given to insignificant men?

Chapter 4:

1. How does arrival at the front affect the soldier’s physical appearance?

2. What symbolism does the earth have for the soldier?

3. What allows man to survive?

4. What must be done on a wiring fatigue?

5. What does the cry of the wounded horses represent?

6. What is ironic about using the cemetery for cover?

7. What will gas do to a person?

8. Where does gas linger?

9. What happens to the corpses in the cemetery?

10. What do Kat and Paul nearly do to the recruit with the hip wound? Why?

11. Why does Paul say the rain falls in their hearts?

(Start a new sheet of paper here!)

Chapter 5:

1. How do the men kill lice?

2. What does Himmelstoss expect from the group of men?

3. Why does Himmelstoss want to have Tjaden court-martialled?

4. What is the status of Paul’s class?

5. What does school have to do with their lives now?

6. What will the men’s lives be like when they return to society?

7. How does Kropp infuriate Himmelstoss?

8. What types of arrests are used in the German army?

9. What is the similarity between Kat and Paul’s goose escapade and the war?

10. Why do they save the goose feathers?

11. What is ever-present in the men’s lives?

12. What special feeling does Paul have for Kat?

Chapter 6:

1. How efficient is the German army?

2. What are the men awaiting?

3. How does Chance rule their lives?

4. Why do they call the rats “corpse-rats”?

5. What foreshadows a rough battle for the men?

6. Why do the men use spades rather than bayonets?

7. How does bombardment wear on the men?

8. How are the attackers described?

9. Why does Paul hesitate before throwing the grenade?

10. How do the men react to the wounded?

11. What are Paul’s memories while he stands sentry duty?

12. How have Paul’s feelings toward his memories changed?

13. Why do the soldiers search so thoroughly for a wounded man?

14. What happens to the dead?

15. How has nature reacted to the war?

16. What happens to Himmelstoss during the attack?

17. What is the result after days of fighting?

Chapter 7:

1. What feelings does the picture of the girl in the white dress provoke in the men?

2. How does Paul feel about being home?

3. What are his mother’s reactions to his visit? What are his father’s reactions?

4. What has happened to Kantorek?

5. Why is Paul repulsed by the conversation he has with his German master?

6. Tell about Paul’s visit with Kemmerich’s mother. Why does he persist in lying to her?

7. Why does Paul say he should never have had a leave?

Chapter 8:

1. Why do the soldiers at the camp on the moor become so close to nature?

2. Describe the Russian prisoners. Why does Paul feel sorry for them?

3. What is wrong with Paul’s mother? Why is his father afraid to ask the surgeon how much her operation will cost?

4. Why is it hard for Paul to spend time with his family?

Start a new sheet of paper here!

Chapter 9:

1. How do the men prepare for the Kaiser’s visit? Who is the Kaiser?

2. The men have a discussion about who starts war. What conclusions do they reach?

3. What type of damage do trench mortars cause?

4. What happens to Paul on scouting duty? How is he saved? How does he feel about his comrades?

5. Who is Gerard Duval? How is Paul affected by his death?

Chapter 10:

1. How does the troop manage to live well for a few days?

2. What happens to Paul when he returns to the front? What happens to Albert?

3. Why doesn’t Paul want to get into a clean bed on the troop train?

4. How does Paul manage to get off the train with Albert?

5. How do the men get nuns to stop praying over them at the crack of dawn?

6. Why does Joseph Hammacher let the nuns know he has a shooting license?

7. What is the Dying Room? Who returns from the Dying Room?

8. Why do the men try to discourage the two young soldiers from having the doctor operate on their flat feet?

9. Paul does a great deal of thinking while he was in the hospital. How does he feel about the war? How does he feel about the young men his age who are involved in the war?

10. What favor do the men do for Lewandowski?

11. Why is it hard for Paul to leave the hospital?

Chapter 11:

1. What is the central action in this chapter? What happens to the German army?

2. What happens to Muller, Bertinck, Leer, and Kat?

3. What is the only thing that helps these men endure their conditions?

4. What new weapons used by the Allies contribute to the collapse of the Western Front?

5. When Kat is wounded, what does Paul try to do for him? What is the outcome of this? What is Paul’s mental state afterward?

Chapter 12:

1. What point has been reached in the war in the fall of 1918?

2. Why does Paul get a fourteen day rest?

3. What does Paul predict for his generation? Does his prediction come true?

4. Why does the point of view change to the third person for the last two paragraphs of the story?

5. What is ironic about the novel’s ending?

THEMES AND QUOTES FROM

All Quiet on the Western Front, Ramarque

The Lost Generation

“All older men are linked up with their previous life. They have wives, children, occupations and interests. They have a background which is so strong that the war cannot obliterate it. We young men of twenty, however, have only our parents and some, perhaps, a girl.” page 23

“Our early life is cut off from the moment we came here and that without our lifting a hand.” page 28

“We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk.” page 18

War is Worse Than Death

“The stillness is the reason why these memories of former times do not awaken desire so much as sorrow. A vast incomprehensible melancholy.” page 121

“We see men without mouths, without jaws, without faces; we find one man who has held the artery of his arm in his teeth for two hours in order not to bleed to death.” page 121

“If the fellows over there catch a man with one of those (bayonets), he’s killed on sight. In the next sector some of our men were found whose noses were cut off and their eyes poked out with their own saw bayonets.” page ?

War is Dehumanizing

“We are insensible dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and kill. We have lost all feeling for one-another.” page 116

“We have become wild beasts. We do not fight: we defend ourselves against annihilation.” page 113

“Tjaden wets his bed. Himmelstoss maintained that it was sheer laziness and invented a method worthy of himself so he could cure Tjaden…” page 46

War Brings People Closer Together

“Formerly we should not have a single thought in common…” page 87

“In the war the men became hard and tough…the finest thing that arose out of this war was comradeship.” page 27

“I believe we have more complete communication than even lovers do.” page ?

War Brings Out the Best in People

“Just look. I am giving a soldier coffee.” page 138

“Though he raves and his eyes roll, it can’t be helped. We have to give him a hiding to bring him to his senses.” page 99

“He tries to tear off his gas-mask with the other hand. Kropp seizes him just in time, twists the hand sharply behind his back and holds it fast.” page 69

War Brings Out the Worst in People

“ ‘You cow,’ I kick him in the ribs – ‘You swine.’ ” page 132

“No one felt kindly toward him, for it was his fault that the food came up to us too late and cold.” page ?

“Territorial Kantorek, do you call those button polished? You seem as though you can never learn. Inadequate, Kantorek, quite inadequate.” page 175

World War I Poetry

Poem 1: Rupert Brooke’s “Peace”

(1) Rupert Brooke, Peace (1914)

Now, God be thanked who has matched us with his hour,

And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,

With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,

To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping.

Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,

Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,

And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,

And all the little emptiness of love!

Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there,

Where there's no ill, no grief, but sleep is mending,

Naught broken save the body, lost but breath;

Nothing to shake the laughing heart's song peace there

But only agony, and that has ending;

And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.

1914

Poem 2: Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier”

(2) Rupert Brooke, The Soldier (1914)

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England's, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Poem 3: Edward Thomas’s “Tears”

It seems I have no tears left. They should have fallen—

Their ghosts, if tears have ghosts, did fall—that day

When twenty hounds streamed by me, not yet combed out

But still all equals in their rage of gladness

Upon the scent, made one, like a great dragon

In Blooming Meadow that bends towards the sun

And once bore hops: and on that other day

When I stepped out from the double-shadowed Tower

Into an April morning, stirring and sweet

And warm. Strange solitude was there and silence.

A mightier charm than any in the Tower

Possessed the courtyard. They were changing guard,

Soldiers in line, young English countrymen,

Fair-haired and ruddy, in white tunics. Drums

And fifes were playing “The British Grenadiers.”*

The men, the music piercing that solitude

And silence, told me truths I had not dreamed,

And have forgotten since their beauty passed.

Jan 1915

*Famous British marching song about the Brigade of Guards, an elite infantry unit.

Poem 4: Edward Thomas’s “The Owl”

Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved;

Cold, yet had heat within me that was proof

Against the North wind; tired, yet so that rest

Had seemed the sweetest things under a roof.

Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest,

Knowing how hungry, cold, and tired was I.

All of the night was quite barred out except

An owl’s cry, a most melancholy cry

Shaken out long and clear upon the hill,

No merry note, nor cause of merriment,

But one telling me plain what I escaped

And others could not, that night, as in I went.

And salted was my food, and my repose,

Salted* and sobered, too, by the bird’s voice

Speaking for all who lay under the stars,

Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.

Feb 1915

*flavored (as with salt)

Poem 5: Siegfried Sassoon’s “They”

The Bishop tells us: 'When the boys come back

'They will not be the same; for they'll have fought

'In a just cause: they lead the last attack

'On Anti-Christ; their comrades' blood has bought

'New right to breed an honourable race,

'They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.'

'We're none of us the same!' the boys reply.

'For George lost both his legs; and Bill's stone blind;

'Poor Jim's shot through the lungs and like to die;

'And Bert's gone syphilitic: you'll not find

'A chap who's served that hasn't found some change.

' And the Bishop said: 'The ways of God are strange!'

Oct. 31, 1916

Poem 6: Siegfried Sassoon’s “Glory of Women”

You love us when we’re heroes, home on leave,

Or wounded in a mentionable place.

You worship decorations; you believe

That chivalry redeems the war’s disgrace.

You make us shells. You listen with delight,

By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled.

You crown our distant ardours while we fight,

And mourn our laurelled memories when we’re killed.

You can’t believe that British troops "retire"

When hell’s last horror breaks them, and they run,

Trampling the terrible corpses - blind with blood.

    O German mother dreaming by the fire,

While you are knitting socks to send your son

His face is trodden deeper in the mud.

1917

Poem 7: Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce Et Decorum Est”

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling,

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And floundering like a man in fire or lime. —

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;

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.

Poem 8: Wilfred Owen’s “Disabled”

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,

And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,

Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park

Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,

Voices of play and pleasure after day,

Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

                       *            *            *

About this time Town used to swing so gay

When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees,

And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim, —

In the old times, before he threw away his knees.

Now he will never feel again how slim

Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands;

All of them touch him like some queer disease.

                       *            *            *

There was an artist silly for his face,

For it was younger than his youth, last year.

Now, he is old; his back will never brace;

He's lost his colour very far from here,

Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,

And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race

And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.

                       *            *            *

One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,

After the matches, carried shoulder-high.

It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,

He thought he'd better join. - He wonders why.

Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts,

That's why; and may be, too, to please his Meg;

Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts

He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;

Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.

Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt,

And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears

Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts

For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;

And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;

Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.

And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.

                       *            *            *

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.

Only a solemn man who brought him fruits

Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.

                       *            *            *

Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes,

And do what things the rules consider wise,

And take whatever pity they may dole.

To-night he noticed how the women's eyes

Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.

How cold and late it is! Why don't they come

And put him into bed? Why don't they come?

Poem 9: Wilfred Owen’s “Futility”

Move him into the sun —

Gently its touch awoke him once,

At home, whispering of fields unsown.

Always it woke him, even in France,

Until this morning and this snow.

If anything might rouse him now

The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds, —

Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.

Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,

Full-nerved, - still warm, - too hard to stir?

Was it for this the clay grew tall?

— O what made fatuous sunbeams toil

To break earth's sleep at all?

Poem 10: Thomas Hardy’s “The Man He Killed”

"Had he and I but met

        By some old ancient inn, tavern

We should have sat us down to wet

        Right many a nipperkin!  half-pint

       

"But ranged as infantry,

        And staring face to face,

I shot at him and he at me,

        And killed him in his place.

       

"I shot him dead because – 

        Because he was my foe, 

Just so – my foe of course he was; 

        That's clear enough; although 

       

"He thought he'd 'list perhaps,  enlist

        Off-hand like – just as I – 

Was out of work – had sold his traps – belongings 

        No other reason why. 

       

"Yes; quaint and curious war is! 

        You shoot a fellow down 

You'd treat if met where any bar is, 

        Or help to half-a-crown." small amount of money

Poem 11: Isaac Rosenberg’s “Louse Hunting”

Nudes - stark and glistening,

Yelling in lurid glee. Grinning faces

And raging limbs

Whirl over the floor one fire.

For a shirt verminously busy

Yon soldier tore from his throat, with oaths

Godhead might shrink at, but not the lice.

And soon the shirt was aflare

Over the candle he'd lit while we lay.

Then we all sprang up and stript

To hunt the verminous brood.

Soon like a demons' pantomine

The place was raging.

See the silhouettes agape,

See the glibbering shadows

Mixed with the battled arms on the wall.

See gargantuan hooked fingers

Pluck in supreme flesh

To smutch supreme littleness.

See the merry limbs in hot Highland fling

Because some wizard vermin

Charmed from the quiet this revel

When our ears were half lulled

By the dark music

Blown from Sleep's trumpet.

Poem 12: Isaac Rosenberg’s “Break of Day in the Trenches”

The darkness crumbles away.

It is the same old druid Time as ever,

Only a live thing leaps my hand,

A queer sardonic rat,

As I pull the parapet's poppy

To stick behind my ear.

Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew

Your cosmopolitan sympathies.

Now you have touched this English hand

You will do the same to a German

Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure

To cross the sleeping green between.

It seems you inwardly grin as you pass

Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,

Less chanced than you for life,

Bonds to the whims of murder,

Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,

The torn fields of France.

What do you see in our eyes

At the shrieking iron and flame

Hurled through still heavens ?

What quaver - what heart aghast?

Poppies whose roots are in man's veins

Drop, and are ever dropping;

But mine in my ear is safe -

Just a little white with the dust.

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