History Homework Help

  M8D1: Pro Patria Mori: The Poetry of WWI

This discussion addresses the following outcomes:

·         Discuss the memory of the First World War based upon the poetry that emerged by those who experienced it first-hand’

Primary source accounts are one of the most important tools available to historians to understand the past. However, as Professor David Reynolds pointed out, how these sources get used can shape our collective memory of past events in ways the original authors might not have anticipated or planned. While historians do not literally rewrite the past, as time passes and our values change, so too does our understanding of past events. In this way, the study of the past is shaped as much by the events that came afterward as it is by what preceded it.

In preparation for this discussion, read the Module  Notes, “https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/dulce-et-decorum-est Dulce et Decorum Est (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/dulce-et-decorum-est.)”, “In Flanders Fields (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/flanders-fields)”, and at least two more poems of your choosing from the British (http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1914warpoets.html)War Poetry (http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1914warpoets.html) or Thirteen Great World War I Poems (http://www.theweek.co.uk/arts-life/59798/twelve-great-first-world-war-poems), and view Remembering & Understanding, Part 1 (http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=103647&xtid=111612&loid=405159). 

Then, in an initial post of at least 750 words discuss the following:

·         In what ways do the four poems you read capture the lived experience of ordinary soldiers? Provide examples. Include a URL to the two additional poems you chose.

·         Why do you think there was an outpouring of literature, art, and poetry from the “Lost Generation” after World War I? 

·         In what ways do the messages in these poems still resonate today, one hundred years later?

Your initial post must use evidence from the assigned readings, including at least two full citations in proper APA style.