'Lads, you're wanted, go and help,'
On the railway carriage wall
Stuck the poster, and I thought
Of the hands that penned the call.
Fat civilians wishing they
'Could go and fight the Hun'.
Can't you see them thanking God
That they're over forty-one?
Girls with feathers, vulgar songs -
Washy verse on England's need -
God - and don't we damned well know
How the message ought to read.
'Lads, you're wanted! over there,
Shiver in the morning dew,
More poor devils like yourselves
Waiting to be killed by you.
Go and help to swell the names
In the casualty lists.
Help to make the column's stuff
For the blasted journalists.
Help to keep them nice and safe
From the wicked German foe.
Don't let him come over here!
Lads, you're wanted - out you go.'
There's a better word than that,
Lads, and can't you hear it come
From a million men that call
You to share their martyrdom?
Leave the harlots still to sing
Comic songs about the Hun,
Leave the fat old men to say
Now we've got them on the run.
Better twenty honest years
Than their dull three score and ten.
Lads, you're wanted. Come and learn
To live and die with honest men.
You shall learn what men can do
If you will but pay the price,
Learn the gaity and strength
In the gallant sacrifice.
Take your risk of life and death
Underneath the open sky.
Live clean or go out quick -
Lads, you're wanted. Come and die.
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This poem gives an in-site in between the lines of a well-known propaganda poster-"Lad's you're wanted!"
ReplyDeleteThroughout the poem the writer, Mackintosh, builds tension but giving more and more detail behind the poster about the real truth of what soldiers do on the battlefield and what happens to them.
He does this by revealing a little more information every stanza. Mackintosh also has a definite rhyme to the poem; ABCB but he breaks the rhythm by using enjambement at the end of lines and caesural pause in the middle of sentences.
Mackintosh gives a big impression on the reader when in the last sentence he says "Lads you're wanted. Come and die." This gives a real impact on the reader and makes the realise the real truth behind the poster and how they are just recruiting men to go and die.
From Group 3
(Ed Parry, Lucy Oliva, Georgie Bray and Ash Layer)
About the author:
ReplyDeleteA scottish war poet born in 1853 and died in 1917, a year before WW1 ended. was born in Brighton and educated at St Paul's School and Christ Church College, Oxford, where he studied classics.
He was sent to the Western Front with the 5th Seaforth Highlanders in July 1915, and was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry at the Somme. He was invalided home after being gassed at High Wood, and was offered a post instructing cadets in Cambridge, but he chose to return to France and was killed at the Battle of Cambrai. He must have written this poem from his past expieriences in war. Its ironic that he writes of the men in battle dieing, only to die in war himself.
from georgie :)
Makintosh is also very against the "fat civilians" that send the men to war.
ReplyDeletewhile they are saying they wish they could fight, not really, the "lads" are out there dieing. The fat civilians are the polititions that sent the men out to war giving them a false interpretation of what it was like. this did really happen as they were described as "lions led by donkeys".
from georgie again :)
In the second stanza, Mackintosh describes how "Fat civilians" wish that they could go and fight but actually, they are scared and don't want to go and are "thanking God That they're over forty-one". This gives the reader more of an insight to behind the poster and how people are happy that they aren't out there fighting because they know what is happening and how they are being killed and wasted.
ReplyDeleteIn the fifth stanza the writer says not really meaning "Go and help to swell the names In the casualty lists." The way he writes this tells us that he doesn't really want people to go and is just telling them that if you go, all you are doing is HELPING to swell the names on the casualty list. He also write "Help to make the column's stuff For the blasted journalists." This tells us that all you are going to do by going to fight is to give something for the journalists to write about and not helping.
In conclusion, Mackintosh writes mainly about how going to help fight isn't going to help and you are just wasting yourself. From what Georgie has written he writes from experience, even though that he helped in the war, but then he only went on to die himself. The way he died partly helps to add to this poem because it gives a real-life account to what happened and that what he's written about, isn't just what he thinks, but is from his actual real-life experiences.
From Ed
To follow on from Georgie and Ed, in the last stanza the mood of the poem which had developed and changed throughout the previous stanza's eventually gets to its main point.
ReplyDelete"Lads, you're wanted. Come and die." This is an extremely poignant last line, which really summarizes the subtle points made prior to it.
It also uses guilt very well, showing how such propaganda was created effectively to make men feel like they were "only" going into a war. "Help to keep them nice and safe, From the wicked German foe." Everyone would love to be a hero, so anything that could possibly give them that honor would probably sound appealing.
However, although it may seem like a noble and dignified cause, it would eventually lead to dangers the volunteers could never have imagined.
From Lucy (:
The poem uses ABAB alternate rhyming and uses repetition of "Lad's your wanted" but after each verse it get's darker and darker. For instance, it starts off with "Lad's your wanted go and help", and ends with "Lad's your wanted, go and die". The poem is focused on the propaganda and how everyone seems to make the war seem fine, whilst the author sees behind the lies.
ReplyDeleteBy Ash :D
ReplyDeleteThe repetition of "Lads, Your wanted" Could be suggesting how the army are desperate for more and younger recruits.
ReplyDeleteHello
ReplyDelete:))))
By Branch Girl
(No i am not a superhero as much as i want to be)
👅👅👅👄👄👄💞
ReplyDeleteBy canika
its very sad
ReplyDelete