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      Considering the relationship between the poetry of WW1 and the context

      Lesson details

      Learning outcome

      I can explain how the experience of World War One might be reflected in the poetry of the time.

      Key learning points

      1. Men from every part of the British Empire fought in the war.
      2. War poetry is not exclusively written by those who fought during a war.
      3. During the First World War, governments relied on patriotism and propaganda to get people to enlist.
      4. Conditions for soldiers during the war were extremely gruelling and taxed them physically, mentally and emotionally.

      Keywords

      • Patriotic - Being patriotic means showing love and support for your country.

      • Empire - An Empire is a group of countries ruled by a single person, government or country, e.g. The Roman Empire.

      • Propaganda - Propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.

      • Censorship - The act of preventing something from being seen or made available to the public for political reasons is known as censorship.

      • Provocative - Something provocative is deliberately designed to cause anger or another strong emotion.

      Common misconception

      That only men from England fought for Britain.

      Men from all over the British Empire fought for Britain.

      Teacher tip

      You might want to spend more time thinking about how people had widely different experiences of World War One depending on their circumstances.

      Content guidance

      Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering

      Supervision

      Adult supervision recommended

      Licence

      This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2026), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0
      except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions
      (Collection 2).

      Lesson video

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      Prior knowledge starter quiz

      6 Questions

      Q1.
      Putting a quotation inside your own sentence, rather than putting it in the middle of a page and then commenting on it, is known as it.

      Correct Answer: embedding, Embedding

      Q2.
      Who were Germany's allies during WW1?

      Russia
      Britain
      Correct answer: Ottoman Empire
      Correct answer: Austria-Hungary

      Q3.
      What is the literary technique called where the weather reflects the mood?

      Correct answer: Pathetic fallacy
      Anaphora
      Enjambment
      Cyclical structure

      Q4.
      Which of the following is a metaphor?

      Correct answer: Juliet is the sun.
      Your eyes are like stars.
      Your eyes dance in the moonlight.

      Q5.
      Which of the following is an example of utilising a caesura?

      'In Flanders fields the poppies blow'
      Correct answer: 'We are the Dead. Short days ago'
      'Scarce heard amid the guns below.'

      Q6.
      Which of the following is WW1 also known as?

      The Worst War
      Correct answer: The Great War
      The Best War
      The Only War

      6 Questions

      Q1.
      A group of countries ruled by a single person, government or country is known as an .

      Correct Answer: Empire, empire

      Q2.
      How many soldiers from the British Empire died in WW1 in total?

      500,000
      1 million
      Correct answer: 8.5 million
      100 million

      Q3.
      Roughly, how many poems were written about WW1?

      Around 20
      Correct answer: Around 2,000
      Around 2 million

      Q4.
      How would men have likely felt in the trenches?

      Safe
      Correct answer: Tense
      Correct answer: Uncomfortable
      Content

      Q5.
      Which of the following are potential reasons for the government censoring soldiers' letters?

      They contained profanity
      Correct answer: They might have contained military secrets
      Correct answer: They might have hurt morale in England
      They might have contained explicit material

      Q6.
      What does it mean to be provocative?

      To cause embarrassment
      To only cause anger
      Correct answer: To cause a strong emotion

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