Enhancing Narrative Through Descriptive Detail in Owen's Poetry

The Poetry of Protest The Sentry Telling the Story Effectively

Narrative Technique What sort of techniques do writers use to tell stories?

Learning Intentions Lesson 1 - Knowledge & Understanding To explore how Owen exploits the narrative possibilities of poetry. Lesson 2 - Developing a Detailed Analytical Response To look closely at how you can develop a detailed response to an aspect of narrative technique.

Key Question If you want to tell a story what are the advantages of the genre of poetry?

Whats the Story? What is the story? What is your personal reaction to the story that Owen tells? Why does Owen tell the story?

Owen wrote to his mother: I can see no excuse for deceiving you about the last 4 days. I have suffered seventh hell. I have not been at the front. I have been in front of it. He talked of an octopus of sucking clay in the dug- out. He continued, The Germans knew we were staying there and decided we shouldn t. January 1917

Enhancing the Narrative What sort of techniques does Owen use to enhance the narrative?

Looking at Detail Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime, Kept slush waist-high and rising hour by hour. And choked the steps too thick with clay to climb.

One key narrative technique exploited by Owen is the use of descriptive detail. By line 4, the speaker, who is possibly the poet, is quick to identify another enemy, the weather. His close description allows the reader to picture the situation and identify the its very real threat. The rain is guttering down. Here the guttural present participle has both an aural and a visual effect creating both the sound of the water and suggesting its quantity, especially in combination with the visual image of waterfalls . The fact that Owen chooses to tell the reader that the slush is waist-high again re-enforces the sense of the extremity of the situation. The water is rising, so it is not just the shells that are dangerous. The rain is making the situation treacherous and the men are in danger of drowning as the water rises hour by hour, the repetition accentuating the sense of an almost inevitable movement towards death. The steps are being choked and the personification also contributes to the underlying sense of the nearness of death. Finally, the impact of the weather on the setting is used to create a sense of claustrophobia. The alliteration in line 6 of clay and climb is difficult to enunciate and arguably contributes to the reader s sense of the men s inability to extricate themselves from this location and this situation.

Breaking it Down Identify and comment on the effect of individual techniques. colloquial language aural nouns tone repetition personification iambic rhythm gustatory adverbs semi- colon ambiguity present participle tactile connotations graphic imagery irony onomatopoeia visual verbs caesura olfactory adjectives list plosives heroic idiom superlative couplet alliteration antiheroic assonance

The Situation We'd found an old Boche dug-out, and he knew, And gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell Hammered on top, but never quite burst through.

Setting the Scene Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime Kept slush waist high, that rising hour by hour, Choked up the steps too thick with clay to climb. What murk of air remained stank old, and sour With fumes of whizz-bangs, and the smell of men Who'd lived there years, and left their curse in the den, If not their corpses....

Caught by the Shell There we herded from the blast Of whizz-bangs, but one found our door at last. Buffeting eyes and breath, snuffing the candles.

The Arrival And thud! flump! thud! down the steep steps came thumping And splashing in the flood, deluging muck - The sentry's body; then his rifle, handles Of old Boche bombs, and mud in ruck on ruck.

The Victim We dredged him up, for killed, until he whined "O sir, my eyes - I'm blind - I'm blind, I'm blind!" Coaxing, I held a flame against his lids And said if he could see the least blurred light He was not blind; in time he'd get all right. "I can't," he sobbed.

Aftermath Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids Watch my dreams still; but I forgot him there In posting next for duty, and sending a scout To beg a stretcher somewhere, and floundering about To other posts under the shrieking air. Those other wretches, how they bled and spewed, And one who would have drowned himself for good, - I try not to remember these things now.

Concluding Let dread hark back for one word only: how Half-listening to that sentry's moans and jumps, And the wild chattering of his broken teeth, Renewed most horribly whenever crumps Pummelled the roof and slogged the air beneath - Through the dense din, I say, we heard him shout "I see your lights!" But ours had long died out.

Develop Your Own Response Take your section of the poem. Discuss it in a pair. Write a paragraph on that aspect.