Text A:

1. I think that the imagery shows that there is a feeling of “home” or origin in places that are unfamiliar. This is because in the poem, the author refers to England as a positive place that will always be familiar to fall back on? Come back to this.
2. I think that the tone of the poem is peaceful. I think this is shown in the poem in several different areas, the start being “Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home.”. I think this emits the feeling of peace because it is saying that being upon the English land is like a cleanse “washed by the rivers” and also a feeling of being blessed “blest by the suns of home”. I think this makes the text feel peaceful because it is like saying being there is like being positively renewed. Another place this is shown in the poem is “And think, this heart, all evil shed away,” because it sounds as though it is saying this place feels like it removes unhappy or evil thoughts and feelings. The final quote I will use is “In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.”. This quote I feel really sets the tone of peacefulness, because it firstly says that hearts are at peace, so a feeling of tranquility is being experienced. “under an English heaven” shows that the area and is very peaceful and perfect, to the author.
3. I think the authors attitude to the war he is fighting is acceptance. I think that he sees and releases the anger or evil he may have fought, “And think, this heart, all evil shed away,” and replaced it with the positive memories that were experienced, accepting and moving on from the hurt. I think he also sees that this place where negative experiences may have occurred had also given positive experiences as well, and he chooses to focus on these positives. I see this in the quotes, “Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,” and “Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness;”. These quotes make it sound as though while bad things may have happened here, there was also opportunity for good given, in the form of flowers and experience, and laughter and happiness.

Text B:

1. I think that the meaning of the phrase is that there was a lot of corpse like bodies rising and moving. Because of the words “resurrection” and “cemetery” and “twelve miles long” we see that it is first of all, the movement of what looks like stumbling corpses, showing there was a lot of injury amongst them. We also see this as it is though they are rising from their graves, which they may not have been expected to survive the event beforehand. Twelve miles long may have been realistic or hypothetical but it shows that the uprising and movement of men were spread out over a large area of land.
2. I think that the effectiveness of language techniques to show the horror of the battle are shown well in the techniques of personification and metaphors. The first quote that shows this is, ” It was as though the land were disgorging a generation of crippled sleeper,”. I think this metaphor shows the battles effect on the soldiers. This can be seen in the words disgorging and crippled, as “disgorging” makes it sound as though the land is forcing the soldiers out against their will, something they don’t want to do but have to is getting back up. The word crippled has a negative connotation showing the reader that the people are injured and harmed, showing, again the effect of the battle. I think another quote that uses an effective language technique is, “it sounded to his as though the earth itself was groaning.” I think this personification shows the horror of battle well because it add an area of something being off as the earth, an inanimate being, reacting negatively to the events. I think this adds horror because people often act negatively, but having an object react can show how bad something really is?
3. I think the quote “he heard the sound of a new world” relates to the rest of the passage meaning that the new world was a worse place that they may have no return from. I can see this in the quote, “‘What have we done, what have we done? Listen to it. We’ve done something terrible, we’ll never get back to how it was before.” This quote shows that he feels like their actions have taken them to a worse place than before, naming it a “new world” that they won’t be able to return from. Another two quotes would be, “He found himself go with the sound into a world in which there was only panic”,”…pulled himself back with an effort into the old life that could not be the same, but which might, if he believed in it, continue.”. These two quotes show the future of the new world relationship, and relate it to their “old life”, which could also be called old world.

Comparison of the two texts: