Discussion Questions
March 15, 2016

1. How would you assess "literary" sources as sources for the historian?   In doing so consider what the historian Beckett argues "It should certainly not be accepted that a handful of well-known sensitive intellectual, or otherwise literary-minded wartime officers like Seigfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves...were in any way representative of their armies as a whole."   Do you agree with Beckett?  If Beckett is correct, then what would be the value of their experiences to the historian?
2. What does Wells add to our understanding of the war?  Can historians use such a source and if so, how?
3. What is the image of war, of the soldier, and of death that Brooke creates in his sonnets?  How do those images compare to images on the same themes created by the other poets?
4. From all of the poems, which poem did you find to have the greatest impact, and why?  From the poems, what did you find to be the most striking image?
5. What do the poems of Sassoon, Owen, Sorley, and Klemm tell us about the nature of the war experience?   
6. Which Sassoon poem do you find to be the most significant, and why?
7. Which Owen poem do you find to be the most significant, and why?
8. What are Sassoon's views of the war, of the soldier, and of death created in his poems?  How does this compare to his "A Raiding Party" and how would you account for any differences?
9. What is meant by the terms "first generation poet" and "second generation poet"?
10. Overall, what value does poetry have for the historian of war?  Can poetry be used to examine the nature of the war experience, and if so, how?
11. What new insights into the war did you learn from the Vera Brittain readings?  What single thing in that reading had the greatest impact on you?
12. If Vera Brittain and Seigfried Sassoon were to go out for a beer, what would they talk about?  On what would they agree, and on what would they disagree, in their conversation?
13. According to Marwick, "Historians often, and legitimately, use art itself, the statements of writers and artists, and the manner in which art is organised as a social institution, in order to illustrate reactions and tendencies they believe to be prevalent in the wider society." If we assume that Marwick is correct, which poems ( and the elements within them) can be used to illustrate tendencies prevalent in the wider society.