Look at the following images, what do they make you think of?
A “Truce” is “an agreement between two people or groups involved in a war, fight, or disagreement to stop it for a period of time”.
What is in your opinion of the Christmas Truce? Why do you think it took place? How did it take place? What did the soldiers do?
Now look at this video and listen to the background ballad.
“Christmas in the Trenches” is a ballad from John McCutcheon’s 1984 Album Winter Solstice. It tells the story of the 1914 Christmas Truce between the British and German lines on the Western Front during the Great War from the perspective of a fictional British soldier. Although Francis Tolliver is a fictional character, the event depicted in the ballad is true. John McCutcheon met some of the German soldiers involved in this Christmas story when he toured in Belgium.
How did the take a break from the war to celebrate Christmas? What did they do?
What do you think they sang?
What do you think they gave one another as presents?
Read the following and see whether you were right.
The ballad is a first person narrative by Francis Tolliver, a fictional British soldier from Liverpool. He is relating the events that happened two years prior, while he was a soldier in the trenches of the Great War. He and his fellow soldiers are dug in to their trench, where, as Tolliver relates, “the frost so bitter hung,” while their German enemies occupy the trench at the opposite end of No Man’s Land. The scene is one of quiet and cold; “the frozen fields of France were still; no songs of peace were sung.” The men are reflecting on how their families back in England are making “their brave and glorious lads so far away” the subject of their Christmas toasts, when from the German lines they suddenly hear a young German voice singing out clearly. He is soon joined by his comrades, and the sound of their carol fills the empty fields devastated by war. When they finish, some of the British soldiers from Kent sing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” after which the Germans sing “Stille Nacht.” The British soldiers accompany them, singing in English, “and in two tongues one song filled up the sky.” The British troops are startled when their front line sentry cries out that a lone German figure has left their trench and is marching alone across No Man’s Land, unarmed and with a truce flag. Though all of the men aim their rifles at him, nobody fires, and soon all of the men on both sides are leaving their trenches and meeting their enemies unarmed in No Man’s Land. There, they trade chocolate and cigarettes and exchange photographs of their families back home, at which all of the men are struck by how similar their enemy is to themselves. One of the Germans plays his violin while a British soldier plays his squeezebox, and the men launch flares to light up the field in order to play a game of football. Later, with the first signs of daylight, Tolliver relates that “France was France once more; With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war.” But, McCutcheon sings, “the question haunted every man who lived that wondrous night; ‘whose family have I fixed within my sight?'” It ends with the fictional Tolliver’s lessons gleaned from the experience; that “the ones who call the shots won’t be among the dead and lame- and on each end of the rifle we’re the same.”
See Christmas Truce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Truce) or (http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/christmastruce.htm)
Inspired by a back-stage conversation with an old woman in Birmingham, AL, this song tells a story that is not only true, but well-known throughout Europe. Now read the lyrics of the ballad.
Watch the 3-minute video and answer the questions below. You will watch the video twice.
1 Why are the British surprised on Christmas Eve?
2 What did the British do?
3 Why were the British afraid at first?
4 What did the British and Germans do when they met?
5 What did they have in common?
6 What did they both risk?
7 Why did the soldiers go back to fighting the day after?
8 Why was it difficult to pick up rifles again?
Watch the 5-minute video and answer the questions or complete the sentences:
1 What appeared all across the German lines?
2 What did the British think?
3 Instead of rifle fire _______________________________________________________________
4 What did the soldiers do? (mention of all the activities)
5 What did Captain Charles Stockwell do?
6 What did the soldiers know?
7 What was the unofficial Truce a chance for?
8 The Christmas Truce was the last public moment ______________________________________
9 What happened on December 26th? (Be specific)
Read a short article on the Christmas Truce and fill in the blanks with the words given in the box:
| enemies, soccer, Â warfare, combatants, truce , quashed , troops, Â the lines, shells, cease-fire , firing, destroy , trenches, no-manâs-land, unarmed, retrieval, outbreak, clash of weapons |
During World War I, on and around Christmas Day 1914, the sounds of rifles _____Â and _____ Â exploding faded in a number of places along the Western Front in favor of holiday celebrations in the _____Â Â and gestures of goodwill between _____Â .
On December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV suggested a temporary hiatus of the war for the celebration of Christmas. The warring countries refused to create any official _____Â , but on Christmas the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial _____.
Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British _____ sang Christmas carols to each other across _____, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.
At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across _____, calling out âMerry Christmasâ in their enemiesâ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans _____ they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of_____.
Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the _____ of the bodies of fellow _____ who had fallen within the no-manâs land between the lines.
The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the _____ Â of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in _____. It was never repeatedâfuture attempts at holiday ceasefires were _____ by officersâ threats of disciplinary actionâbut it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal _____, the soldiersâ essential humanity endured.
During World War I, the soldiers on the Western Front did not expect to celebrate on the battlefield, but even a world war could not _____ Â the Christmas spirit.
Write a short paragraph in which you express your feelings about the Christmas Truce. What do we learn from this historical event? Why should it be celebrated or remembered?
Do the following reading activity at home and be prepared to discuss it in class
Now read the poem by Carol Ann Duffy and be prepared to share your impressions with your classmates.
The First World War truce â which saw British and German troops lay down their arms â has been immortalised by Poet Laureate and Mirror columnist Carol Ann Duffy.
On Christmas Day 1914 soldiers from both sides of the trenches on the Western Front in northern France met up in No Manâs Land for a game of football. As many as 100 troops took part and the game began after each side was heard singing Christmas songs in their trenches. As many as 100,000 soldiers were involved in a number of unofficial ceasefires staged at Christmas and other times during the conflict. Captain Bruce Bairnsfather wrote of the 1914 truce: âI wouldnât have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything.â
Duffyâs poetry penetrates the detail of life in the trenches in order to fuse the readerâs feelings with the intensity of the suspended moments of the truce. She describes the men huddling together, lighting their pipes or waiting for sleep. A young soldier stares at the same star that his mother may be gazing at simultaneously. The poem goes on to describe the horror of war through its evocative imagery of the damage it inflicted on the soldiers. Can you substantiate this?
The poem describes the singing as a âsudden bridge from man to manâ that elicited cheering. The fraternisation from this point onwards gathers pace like a snowball with French, German and English songs being sung through the night, followed by gifts and exchanges of food, alcohol and cigarettes at daylight. There is more translation from Duffy as she charts the fast-growing warmth and communication between the soldiers:
I showed him a picture of my wife
iche zeigte ihm
ein Foto meiner frau.
Sie sei schon, sagte er.
He thought her beautiful, he said.
The soldiers also buried their dead in a part of the war-torn landscape described by Richard Schirrmann (founder of the German Youth Hostel Association) as, âStrewn with shattered trees, the ground ploughed up by shellfire, a wilderness of earth, tree-roots and tattered uniforms.â This was the area known as âNo Manâs Landâ which became temporarily transformed by soldiers who allowed themselves to âMake of a battleground, a football pitch.â
Duffyâs skilful use of alliteration and listing is shown to full effect in the poem, which powerfully conjures the moods of alienation or sudden interaction. Can you spot a few examples?
Press censorship and military oppression ensured that little information regarding the truces emerged, so that much of the information came directly from soldiers at the front or those wounded in hospitals. One of those who took part in the Christmas truce, Alfred Anderson, who died in 2005, recalled, âI remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence. Only the guards were on duty. We all went outside the farm buildings and just stood listening. And, of course, thinking of people back home. All Iâd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machinegun fire and distant German voices. But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted âMerry Christmasâ, even though nobody felt merry.â
The Christmas Truce poem illuminates this silence but introduces into it:
Then flickering flames from the other side
danced in his eyes
as Christmas trees in their dozens shone,
candlelit on the parapets,
and they started to sing, all down the German lines.
Much has been written about World War One, and much of it by soldier poetsâabove all, the great Wilfred Owen. Carol Ann Duffyâs approach is fairly nostalgic, but very lyrical. Duffy has said of her own work, âI like to use simple words, but in a complicated way.â Owen, in contrast, who is not distanced by time or place, said of his own war poetry, âMy subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.â
Last but not least, I would like you to watch what some students prepared on the Christmas Truce.
Duffy’s poem describes in detail the life in the trenches, in order to involve the reader’s feelings and to point out the intensity of the moments relative to the Christmas Truce. She describes the men who gather together as brothers, who light their pipes as if they were in their living rooms at home or simply waiting for sleep. A young soldier looks the same star that his mother could be gazing at that very moment, because we must remember that we all live under the same sky. The poem goes on describing the horrors of war through evocative images of the damage inflicted on the soldiers.
Duffy makes a clever use of alliteration in the poem, which calls in particular to focus on the relationships between words phonetically put into relevance, in order to “catch” the reader’s attention to the chain of phonic sounds and evoking certain ideas or emotions. For example, the listing of the names wants to emphasize the fact that they are mixed English and German names , to emphasize the fact that all human beings are brothers.
Duffy wants to bring out the misery of the soldiers. Though it is Christmas they can not be themselves because they think permanently about frost, mud and pain. This Truce is for the memory of the happy moments, but it ended in the worst way: they would start fighting again after having socialized with the enemies. How could they kill them? Persons who have now become new friends.. The coldness of the Great War had won that day.
The use of the names is to give an identity to the soldiers too. So many died and so many were buried without having a cross with their names.
Sad event, but beautiful poem.
The proud that pervades someone who is fulfilling something he belives in, so as fighting for his ideals, his homeland. The courage that pushes him to go on whatever happens, the enthusiasm that enlight his eyes while he is accomplishing his aims.. itâs the most powerful feeling a man could aspire to, itâs the biggest joy a human being could desire.
But what if all you belived in, betrays your expectation? What if all youâve ever longed for, collapses exactly while you thought you were going to achieve it? Itâs what happened to british and german soldiers envolved in world war I, when they realized the great and right conflict they supported, had turned into an interest one.
Powerlessness, disappointment, disorientation and anger, because is caused by someone you relied on. But above all loneliness. You know you could have avoided this failure if only you hadnât lapsed into such envolving situation. Youâve lost yourself, your trust in your own figure and you know, youâre the only person you can rely on to raise again, when also your loved ones seem to be out of rich.
You start doubting about all things, all realities that sourrounds you. You start wandering about the way you should, you could, maybe you must choose..and you unearth another powerful world
you didnât know: a world that overtake predjudices and false notion theyâve ever told you, when your homeland has tuned his back on you and your enemies has become your friends. Youâre eager to descover this world, and also if you fear it, you have nothing to loose, nothing worst what you have experienced could hurts you and if it would happen, you wonât feel it because of the armor you have developed..so you hang on this new reality and make it yours.
Thatâs why during World War One, the episode of Christmas Truce took place. Millions of men broke their soldierâs shape revealing to themselves and each other for what they really were: tangible human being. The disillusion provoked by this war headed partecipants to look for a more insightful sense of their enemies and their conditions.. they were human beings too.
Duffyâs poetry with its expressive verses itâs so penetrating: it gives vivid images which allow the reader to emphatise with trenches atmosphere.
âSomebody kissed the gold of his ring;
a few lit pipes;
most, in their greatcoats, huddled,
waiting for sleep.
The liquid mud had hardened at last in the freeze.
But it was Christmas Eve; believe; belief thrilled the night air,
where glittering rime on unburied sons
treasured their stiff hair.
The sharp, clean, midwinter smell held memoryâ
Someone finds his weak through a golden ring remembering of his lover, someone else unloads tension smoking cigarettes.. âBeing loved makes you strong, but loving someone makes you braveâ, I heard. Stiff bodies on the ground, memories of loved ones, gave soldiers the strength to go on despite suffering so much, despite their opposite will, despite the huge emptiness provoked by such unmotivated violence. The bitter consolation they find thinking about warâs end, about coming back home, the knowledge nothing could be the same any more.
The idea of silence and exsahustion pervading warâs field and the sensation of sadness and homesickness the soldiers were attacked by, seems to materialize line to line, strophe to strophe, until the poem ends and the âreader-spectatorâ has to regain contact with his reality.
Full immersion in the episode is helped by alliterations, which concearns physical sensations: sight and hearing ( âsâ alliteration in the first line and âFâ alliteration in the third line) and cold ( âfâ alliteration in the second line)
âno shadows, shots from snipers, nowt to note or report.
The frozen, foreign fields were acres of pain.
Then flickering flames from the other side danced in his eyesâ.
Moreover, equality and fraternal feeling is given by listings as:
âFreddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank . . .â
and âAll night, along the Western Front, they sang, the enemies â
carols, hymns, folk songs, anthems, in German, English, French;
each battalion choired in its grim trench.
So Christmas dawned, wrapped in mist, to open itself
and offer the day like a gift
for Harry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinz âŠ
with whistles, waves, cheers, shouts, laughs.â
Which suggest the common attitude as human being and the sharing of same conditions despite the nationality as soldiers.
You seem to have put yourself in a soldiers’ shoes.
Carol Ann Duff- The Chrismas Truce
It’s complicate substantiate the Chrismas truce because in italian history books it isn’t mention. The notices that we have about it are the stories of soldiers that parteciped in the Great War and the historical documents about this event. In this poem there are a lot of links about the Truce because it’s talking about it and it talks about the chrismas songs, the fact that food, drinks, alcool, sweets are share; the funerals of both parts soldiers in no-man’s-land. This event was the sign of the useless of war and the brutality and viciousness of death of young people.
In the poem there are a lot of alliteration for examples ‘Freddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank’ or ‘Harry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinz ⊠with whistles, waves, cheers, shouts, laughs’ or ‘no sign of life, no shadows, shots from snipers, nowt to note or report’ because there are used for underline moods of alienation of all soldiers that is present in all the poem.
The alliteration of the names is also used to emphasise the fact that even if the soldiers are enemies (Germans and English), they are human beings and they share the same sufferings.
The poem talks about the Christmas Truce. It’s set in the tranches of British and German in French and the author remembers how soldiers were inside of them. During it guns were quiet and the moon was huge in the sky. Germans start singing StilleNacht first and British stayed quite and cheered tham and than started singing The first Noel. It was an extraordinary day in which English and German soldiers climbed out from the tranches and befriend exchanging biscuits and other thinga. They also buried and prayed for their death. This days passed quickly and the war started again.
The highly descriptive part are full of details that express the cruelty of the war. The use of alliteration makes us notice better some passages and to make harsh sounds. The mud and the frozen are two elements repeated many times to cath the attention of the reader. The bird who sang alone in a tree is the same of then soldiers, leaved and forgotten in trenches, hopeless and won by sufference.
Carol Ann Duffy: The Christmas Truce
Carol Ann Duffy was a War Poet and like all them he describes in his text âThe Christmas Truceâ the horror of the War. In fact there are some evocative’s images of the destructive consequences of the that like:
Line 2: The dead lay still in No Man’s Land.
Line 3: The moon, like a medal, hung in the clear, cold sky. It symbolize the fact that the prize for the soldier is the sky (death).
Lines 5-6: A boy from Stroud stared at a star to meet his mother’s eyesight there. It underlines that he would never see again his mother and that it’ s the only way to do that.
Line 8-9: An owl swooped on a rat on the glove of a corpse. In a copse of trees behind the lines, a lone bird sang. Birds’s figure always remember death’s figure. It’s like the death bird.
Line 11: Then silence spread and touched each man like a hand. It remindsdeath’s hand.
Line 18: No sign of life. The destructive consequences of the War.
Line 27-28-29: Cariad, the song was a sudden bridge from man to man; a gift to the heart from home, or childhood, some place shared ⊠Here it’s remembered soldiers’ childhood and it’s a turning point because it’s thought that when you are going to die you see all your life in a flash.
Line 35: Who had died. The word death is constantly repeated to highlight the end of the War and the life.
The poem is also full of alliteration tounderlinded soldiers’s mood like:
Line 3: Freddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank . . .
Line 6: A boy from Stroud stared at a star.
Line 24: The frozen, foreign fields were acres of pain. It underlines the frozen soldiers and fronzen place.
Line 25: Then flickering flames from the other side danced in his eyes. It highlights the destructive flames.
Line 28: Men who would drown in mud. âWâ’s alliteration underlines the word âdrownâ that reminds to Owen’s poem âDulce et decorum estâ where there is the figure of the solider that is drown in the gas.
Carol Ann Duffy is not a war poet. She is one of the greatest British poets and she is still living.
You spotted examples of alliteration in the poem, but you did not mention why C.A.Duffy decided to alliterate certain words rather than others. There is always a reason. It’s up to you to figure out what it may be. đ
Carol Ann Duffy wrote this poem to celebrate the German and British soldiers who fought during the I World War. The reason why she composed âThe Christmas Truceâ was the soldiersâ decision not to struggle on Christmas 1914. First of all the men – both of the British and of the German Army – were human beings, with the same feelings, emotions, sufferings and hopes also if war had transformed them into killing machines.
Actually the I World War was welcomed with enthusiasm and a lot of young people volunteered because they considered the conflict as an adventure undertaken for noble ends. Soon the initial proud was replaced by growing doubts and disillusionment. Life in the trenches was hell and the soldier poets, who improvised verses were trying to awake the conscience of those who, living comfortable at home, ignored the horrors of the war.
No Manâs Land was the name of the LAND where the conflict took place, it is mentioned in the first stanza and Iâm upset, because this expression is followed by the soldiersâ name: this device conveys a sense of friendship and brotherhood among men who till that moment have been enemies, but on Christmas they forgot the hate locked in their souls by their own country, in order to evoke feelings of pity and forgiveness and not to be driven by pride and desire of dominion. It is referred to something that would have caused a change in their lives.
Freddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank and yet Harry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinz: who is English and who German? They are simply men, it doesnât matter where they come from. The horror and violence of the war disappeared in front of the German Christmas song, seen as the metaphor of the bridge that connects men, a remembrance of the home-warmth, a recollection of childhood of the soldiers who, once, had been young and innocent. They must appear cold and pitiless, because war is a weapon that doesnât allow you to be kind or fragile, but in that very moment they show who they really are: fathers and husbands.
In the first stanza we find a contraposition between the image of the boy looking at the star and catching his motherâs sight in its brightness and the last line , where the horrors of the war are described with painful details. A hard opposition is pointed out: on one side the delight of life, the recollection in the soldierâs mind of his mother , who represents the warmth and the light. On the other side there is the present world, the world of the war, made up of darkness, cold nights and fear. The owl of the poem can be associated to a tyrannical judge, who from the top of the tree is looking with no pity to your meaningless death. The disgustind rat is upon a corpse, that once was a man. Both of them evoke anxiety and dissolve the lively image of the previous lines. Ann Duffy in her poem discovers moments of consolation through love, memory and language , she uses dramatic scenes using simple words in a way that doesnât sound from her perspective. Imagery is very important, so the reader can visualize her words. Amazing is her representation of reality using different forms of alienation, everyday, conversational language. She plays with words as she explores the way in which meaning and reality are constructed through language. The use of alliteration and listing give the poem a particular sound effect; it seems to be a lullaby: in the 2nd verse there is an alliteration of N, in the 3rd verse of letter F, in the 16th of letter E and V , in the verse number 23 of letter F, in the stanza 12 of letter H and in the stanza 16 of letter S.
I liked your observation of the contrast created by the poet between “No Man’s Land” and the mentioning of the soldiers’ names. I think this contrast is meant to highlight the fact that those soldiers who died had an identity of their own and they must be remembered because their death was a “stupid” death. No human being should fight another human being. You may fight against a soldier belonging to a different nation declared by your govenrment as the “enemy”, but then you realize that enemy is just like you. This is what I love about this poem. It is more than a manifesto against the war. It is a poem that celebrates the wonderful qualities human beings have in common, regardless of their nationality.
I think the poem by Carol Ann duffy is sadly true because it tells in all its crudity the events of the Great War , but nevertheless the Christmas truce has, in my opinion, changed the concept of enemy. Indeed the Days of Christmas, the two front, English and German, decided to stop the rain of bullets and establish a day of peace with the enemy, cutting off the series of deaths and violence.
Everything has to reflect also because there is respect between enemies, even in war.
And what these guys (just because guys did not exceed the average age 20 years) were able to do a thing so beautiful in a time where everything in the world is bad.
Alliteration:
A boy from Stroud stared a the star
no sign of life,
no shadows, shots from snipers…
The frozen, foreign fields…
⊠beneath the shivering, shy stars
with whistles, waves, cheers, shouts, laughs
Sie sei schön, sagte er.
bright bullets
“The Christmas truce” of Carol Ann Duffy is a poem addressed to children. This can be understood by the fact that she describes the moment of “rest”, when everything is silence. In fact she uses a calm tone and slow pace. Moreover, in addition to the situations where the soldiers pass the night thinking their parents or trying to fall asleep, Duffy reveals also the horror of war. For example she wrote ” Men who would drown in mud, be gassed, or shot, or vaporised, by falling shells or live to tell”. In these lines she lists all the ways you could die. Mud was an element, which put in dufficulty many soldiers, because it was the result of the amputation of the feet. So there was a relief when it froze: “The liquid mud had hardened at last in the freeze”. Then there were gas, shot, ecc. Even if you was not hit by a bomb or a shot, you could have a shell shock.
In all the poem there is a repetiton of words “dead” and “corpse” or there are lists with the names of the fallen to emphasize the moltitude of casualties. Another alliteration is “believe; belief” that underline the importance of Christmas because it gives hope. A phrase that gives me emotions is “I shell noto want”. Who thought this during the truce had the conception that short moments bring happiness.
The poem is meant to commemorate the deaths of so many young soldiers, it is a manifesto against the war and as such it is addressed to both adults and children. I think that the illustrations to the poem are meant to emphasise the fact that any war kills “innocence”.
Carol Ann Duffy “The Christmas Truce”
The poem describes the horror of war through its evocative imagery of the damage it inflicted on the soldiers; Duffy writes about: âMen who would drown in mud, be gassed, or shot, or vaporised by falling shells, or live to tellâ. The cruelty and inhumanity of the war emerge from the explicit description of the multitudes of ways a soldier could die from.
She uses listing and alliteration in the first stanza, when she describes Christmas Eve and the mood of alienation of the soldiers, writing down names of both Germans and British men âFreddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank . . .â who, instead of celebrating this joyful holiday, are laying dead in No Manâs land; and again in the 12th stanza: âHarry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinz . . . with whistles, waves, cheers, shouts, laughsâ when it is finally Christmas day and the British and German troops surprisingly gather together to celebrate Christmas.
I liked the way your worded a core aspect of the poem: “the cruelty and inhumanity of the war emerge from the explicit description of the multitudes of ways a soldier could die from.”
Carol Ann Duff was able to carry us through his poetry and his evocative images, up to the trenches. Perhaps each of us reading this poem, recognize himself in one of the figures of soldiers. For example, I recognize myself in the soldier staring at a star in the sky, recalls his mother, perhaps because the sky may be the only element that remains common to the soldier, and his mother they are under the same sky. The most important topics that characterize the poem,are those that characterize the internal situation of each soldier: night, silence, horror in the first part; peace ,fellowship and singing in the second one. It’s night, no sign of life, no shadows, shots from snipers, no fire, no war. In These atmosphere every soldier despite being frozen, absorbed in mud, and trembling from the cold, still have the power to stay awake lost in some dream or thought. Someone is still awake to remember the mother looking at a star. Others who remember affection, looking at gold ring. The night have a supreme importance, of reflection. At night soldiers think, write (a soldier is Also a poet), and remember perhaps, even try to sleep.
Night is the only moment for the soldier, who gives vent to all those thoughts that he could not deepen the morning. Ann Cliff deepen then not only the outward appearance and physique of the soldier, but also his psychological condition, not visible to the eye but near each of our hearts.
The poem begins with a detailed description of the night , seen in this first part as a sad moment , which emphasizes even more the misery of every soldier . In this first part triumphs horror , fear, misery, dejection. The horror and silence are the masters of the whole scene. Reading the poem, we realize that it is a crescendo,an initial situation of horror that is disappearing and comes near to that great event (Christmas), where the fraternization explode, with the exchange of food and gifts,carols, hymns, folk songs, singing is the “sudden bridge from man to man.” We are in 1914 with the Christmas truce. The night, after this Great event, is no longer silent ,horror and cold, but fraternization gifts,cheers, shouts, laughs. The night now, is not reflection but celebration,an almost emotional warmth,that reminds them of their homes. They were no longer enemies, but brothers. No more warriors or soldiers, but finally human beings.
All immersed in nature where the sky and stars seem to have reconciled with each other. Where the timid stars shine, as humanity and love shine from the heart of each soldier.
Carol Ann Cliff uses a powerful and descriptive language, several repetitions, personifications such as “shy stars and the pinned moon,” “Silver frost on barbed wire, strange tinsel, sparkled and winked,” “silence spread and touched each man like a hand “. Similarities such as: “The moon, like a medal,” and alliteration: “Freddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank …”,”no shadows, shots from snipers”,” The frozen, foreign fields were acres of pain “,” Then flickering flames from the other side”, “Harry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinz”, “with whistles, waves”. This event will be the most valid proof that the war is really an atrocious act, terrible and useless. We are all human beings we share the same fate and no one should have a license to take the life of a person. This is the task that does not concern us,but regard someone who is above us.
Remember that the poet is Carol Ann Duffy (do not know why you wrote Cliff more than once. Is there a Carol Ann Cliff? I will check it now , just out of curiosity!). “She” not “he”!
DUFFY WROTE THIS POEM TO UNDERLINE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRUCE IN WORLD WAR I. HOW MEN WERE ABLE TO CEASE FIRE AND START SEEING EACH OTHER AS HUMAN BEINGS AND NOT AS ENIMIES. SHE WRITES IN A SIMPLE WAY TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR EVERYONE TO UNDERSTAND, EVEN IF THE PLOT IS VERY CRUEL. SHE USES SIMILARTIES TO DESCRIBE SCENARIOS OF NATURE AND THE PLACE WHERE THE SOLDIERS WERE. FROM THESE DESCRIPTIONS YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THE DIFFICULT MOMENTS THAT THE SOLDIERS WERE GOING THROUGH AND THANKS TO THE WORDS THAT DUFFY WROTE WE ARE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT SOLDIERS WERE FEELING DURING THOSE HARD DAYS. FOR EXAMPLE IN LINE SIX SHE DESCRIBES THE SCENE WHERE A YOUNG SOLDIER LOOKS AT THE STARS AND SEES HIS MOTHERS EYES, THIS TO MAKE US UNDERSTAND THE WILL AND THE HOPE OF EACH SOLDIER TO GO ON AND TO BELIEVE THAT ONE DAY THEY WILL SEE THEIR LOVE ONES AGAIN. THEN SHE FOCUSES ON THE HORROR OF THE WAR, UNDERLINING HOW THE SOLIDERS SPENT THERE TIME IN THE TRENCHES. BUT THE WAR WAS NOT ONLY THIS, IN FACT THANKS TO THE TRUCE POSITIVE FEELINGS CAME OUT, SOLDIERS BEGAN TO SING AND TO WISH EACH OTHER MERRY CHRISTMAS IN THEIR LANGUAGE. FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON THEY WERE FOR A MOMENT LIKE FRIENDS.
DUFFY USES ALLITERATIONS SUCH AS: âŠ.FREDDIE,FRANZ,FRIEDRICH,FRANK IN THIS ALLITERATION THE SOUND IS STRONG WHICH DESCRIBES THE CRUEL OF THE WAR.
âŠ.FROZEN, FOREIGN FIELDSâŠ.
âŠWITH WHISTLES,WAVES,CHEERS,SHOUTS..
I THINK DUFFY USES THIS KIND OF WRITING TO MAKE THE READER UNDERSTAND THE BRUTALITY OF THE WAR NOT ONLY THROUGH WORDS BUT ALSO THROUGH THE SOUND OF THEM.
I THINK THAT THIS POEM WITH SIMPLE WORDS DESCRIBE VERY WELL THE SITUATION AND THE FEELINGS OF THE SOLDIERS.
This poem describes perfectly the situaton of the trenches on Christmas Day. The poem is so detailed because it seems that you can feel thoose moments as you were there.
It’s the Christmas Day: soldiers who are every day in conflict are playing together because they miss the happyness of Christmas’ Holidays. Unfortunately this is only a truce. A little truce. In fact, the next day things are the same as previous days. But with one big difference: the soldiers know each other. They found really hard to kill people who they have played, laugh and joke with. Both the factions are composed by young people and they don’t want to kill, they don’t want the war, expecially after Christmas’ Night but unfortunately they are obliged. In my opinion, this is the horror described by the poem.
In the poem there are a lot of alliteration which have the function of repeating like “Freddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank” or “Stroud stared at a star”.
An example may be that soldiers sing and joke together before and the day after will be ready to die for their country: smothering or gas trapped in the mud of the trenches.
Perhaps you meant a “short” truce, not a “little” truce. đ
The poem goes on to describe the horror of war through its evocative imagery of the damage it inflicted on the soldiers. Can you substantiate this?
The presence of death shows up on line 8, where âan owl swooped on a rat on the glove of a corpseâ. From then on to line 16 the poet evokes imagines of the pain and misery of the soldiers. Some of them take advantage of the ceased fire to think about their relatives (line 12), others smoke pipes (line 13), others wait to get to sleep in the cold of the winter (line 14-15). The only positive aspect is the freezing of the mud, so that they do not suffer anymore of trench foot.
Duffyâs skilful use of alliteration and listing is shown to full effect in the poem, which powerfully conjures the moods of alienation or sudden interaction. Can you spot a few examples?
the presence of germans words in the songs make it feel more realistic, in the same way the poet use the allitaration on the name of his fallen comrades (âFreddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank . . .â line 3) and those who exchanged gifts (âHarry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinz âŠâ line 45) , it makes you realize the closeness between the subjects.
Nice consideration the one that the use of alliterative personal names gives a sense of closeness of the soldiers. đ
1)âThe Christmas Truceâ is written by Carol Anne Duffy as a remembrance of the truce between German and English troups, which took place on Christmas Eve. We could notice a gap between the first part of the poem and the second one. In fact, the opening section consists of a large accurate description of the frozen silent climate the war brought. Here, the poet carefully portrays some chilling details like the âowl swooped on a rat on the glove of a corpseâ or furthermore âSilver frost on barbed wireâ to define the scene of death and frost. We can catch the feeling of abandonment and terror the soldiers sensed, underlined by Duffy’s image of a young boy who looks for his mother through the moon. The following section completely changes the whole climate. The soldiers here are trying to forget the war: they call forth Christmas spirit, forgetting their own uniform and singing as one single voice a song which âwas a sudden bridge from man to manâ. Words like âfrostâ, âsilentâ and âpainâ turne into âwhistles, waves, cheers, shouts, laughs.â. The tremendous feeling of war still remains all around, as trenchant lines like âthe sprawled, mute shapes of those who had died.â remeber us, but we can also perceive soldiers’ effort to forget it and hide it by the brotherhood and equality ones. Nevertheless the beginning of the poem leaves its mark showing how hard and devastating the life in trenches was for soldiers: guys who were forced to leave every human condition and meet death, terror and loneliness.
2)In her poem, Duffy makes use of games of fonetic to enforce her message. Feelings of loneliness and death are accentuated by listing of hard sound of words just like in the third line “Freddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank . . .”, which seems to call all dead men one by one. On the other hand, another list of name is made in the following part of the poem, but this time there is just the soft sound of “Harry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinz ⊔. In fact here mood of warmth and interaction take place. Moreover the lines “A boy from Stroud stared at a star” and ” The frozen, foreign fields were acres of pain.” with their alliteration want to symbolize the condition of abandonment the soldiers had to live in.
I liked your comment on the sense of abandonment. I had not thought of it myself. Thank you for pointing it out.
In Duffy’s poem is important that is also present a stanza where there are the damages that the war inflicted to soldiers, this stanza is the eight, where she writes ” Men who would drown in mud, be gassed, or shot, or vaporised by falling shells, or live to tell,..”.
This part is so important because propaganda send people to the war, but it doesn’t highlight the problems that came from this.
Another important characteristic of this poem is listing, through this technique the poet can get stronger a thing. An example of this is when she writes about the truce, in particular about the kind of singing and for emphasise this the author explains more kinds of songs. She writes: “All night, along the Western Front, they sang, the enemies âcarols, hymns, folk songs, anthems, in German, English, French;each battalion choired in its grim trench.”. Another example is the second-last stanza: “And all that marvellous, festive day and night, they came and went, the officers, the rank and file, their fallen comrades side by side beneath the makeshift crosses of midwinter graves ⊔, here the poet uses these examples to explain the coming and going of people during the truce.
You are right, I think the poet wants to emphasise the casualties both fronts.
Carol Ann Duffy wrote this poem in remembrance of the soldiers in the German and British trenches in World War 1. This poem describes the horror of war through its evocative imagery of the damage it inflicted on the soldiers, but in the same time has elements which represent the Christmas truce. For example in lines 2: âThe dead lay still in No Man’s Land â, line 3: âThe moon, like a medal, hung in the clear, cold skyâ, line 8: âAn owl swooped on a rat on the glove of a corpseâ, line 11: âThen silence spread and touched each man like a handâ, line 18: âNo sign of lifeâ and line 36: âThe sprawled, mute shapes of those who had diedâ, the poet wanted to represent the ugly and difficult moments that the soldiers had to face at that time, and that in the trenches, life was very hard. Only in World War 1 instead there were some special events; German soldiers, British and French have made a Christmas card and Christmas carols from the trenches and for a brief period they were like friends.
Carol Ann Duffy in her poem uses the alliteration; she uses this figure of speech to emphasize the importance of that line, of those words and moods of the soldiers. For example in line 3: âFreddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frankâ, in line 40: âFor Harry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinzâ, in line 28: âMen who would drown in mudâ and in lines 22-23: âNo sign of life, no shadows, shots from snipersâ.
the use of alliteration is really important in this poem. To learn more about its effect read some of your classmates’ observations.
Duffy ‘s poem deals with the Christmas truce, which many times is not remembered in the history books. She uses a language rich of figures of speech, such as synesthesias (“silver frost”, “flickering flames”), which are used to describe the landscape and the soldiers, or similes (“Shropshire lad ran at him like a rhyme”) and alliteration (“Freddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank”, “Harry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinz”) to capture the reader’s attention: the author’s aim is to spread and support the only moment of humanity that stood out from the sea of hatred and suffering during the first World War.
Duffy often focuses on the names of the soldiers, German and English, or on the verses, in both languages, of Christmas carols because she wants to emphasize that brotherhood and respect that disappeared after the truce between men.
This is opposed to the suffering and destruction caused by the conflict, using gruesome imagery (“an owl swooped on a rat on the glove of a corpse”) and describes how the soldiers could easily die drowning in mud, gassed, shot or vaporised.
I like the consideration on “brotherhood”.
âChristmas Truceâ by Carol Ann Duffy
1- The poem â Christmas Truceâ by Carol Ann Duffy is characterised by the juxtasposition of happy images linked to the particular event of the Christmas Truce and the images linked to the horrors of the Great War. For example in the second stanza the poet uses the image of an owl that swooped on a rat on the glove of a corpse and this is a striking image of death. The image of dead corpses is present also in the fifth stanza where the poet highlights that the âglittering rime on buried sons treasured their stiff hairâ. Then, in the next stanza, the poet writes âthe frozen, foreign field were acres of painâ and in this line, I think that, C.A. Duffy is referring to the fact that in those fields many soldiers died and for this reason those fields are âacres of painâ. Moreover the poet makes a list of what kind of horrors soldiers had faced: âdrown in mud, be gassed, or shot, or vaporose by falling shellsâ. Then the poet descrive how the Christmas Truce started. The soldiers from both side of the trenches started to sing. The Germans stood from their trenches and they saw, across the divide âthe sprawled, mute shapes of those who had diedâ. So the songs, that represent a sense of living, are being compared with dead corpses, which represent the lack of life. Finally there is another striking image that is juxtaposed with the images of joy and cheerfulness that characterised this truce, that is the fact that soldiers buried the dead and they dig them graves.
2- Carol Ann Duffy uses in this poem lists and alliterations. For example there are three lists that I want to highlight. Two of them are lists of soldiersâ names â Freddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frankâ and âHarry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinzâ. In these lists are mentioned both English and German names. I think that the poet made this choice to highlight that soldiers have got an identity, they were people but they were treated like objects. Moreover there are other lists that are linked to the actions of the soldiers during the truce. One is linked to their songs (âcarol, hymns, folk songs, anthemâŠâ) and the other is linked to unusual actions for soldier, which are: âwhistles, waves, cheers, scout, laughsâ. I think that all these lists made by the poet, were thought to emphazise the features of that magic moment. Instead the alliteration is being used in those lines that are linked to the images of war. For example this technique is used to describe the sad atmosphere in which soldiers had to spend their time : â the moon, like a medal hang in the clean, cold skyâ (l), âthe liquid mud had hardenedâ (d), â the frozen, foreign fields were acres of painâ (f), âmen who would drown in mudâ (w) and the juxtaposition of life and death: âby falling shells, or live to tellâ.
Valentina, it is always a pleasure for me reading your personal considerations. Thank you for working so hard and for taking pleasure in what you do. I will miss not having you as a student next year. Hope your future university professors will appreciate your passion for knowledge and your great quality in partaking to projects and educational activities.
The novel talks about the Christmas Truce, it is so detailed that it seems that you can feel thoose moments as you were there. The soldiers are playing, they bury their deads and they meet each other even if they are in war. But it is a short truce. They must return to the fight, but it is much more difficult, because now they know each other. And it is much more difficult kill a person we know: this is the horror of the novel. This event was, also, the sign of the useless of war and the brutality and viciousness of death of young people. The poem is full of alliterations that underline soldiersâs mood like:
Line 3: Freddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank . . .
Line 6: A boy from Stroud stared at a star.
Line 24: The frozen, foreign fields were acres of pain. It underlines the frozen soldiers and place.
Line 25: Then flickering flames from the other side danced in his eyes. It highlights the destructive flames.
Line 28: Men who would drown in mud. âWââs alliteration underlines the word âdrownâ.
Remember, it is a poem, not a novel!
Carol Ann Duffy’s poem was composed in the memory of the German and British soldiers, who ceased momentarily the conflict during the World War I, in order to celebrate the Chrismas Day in 1914. However Carol Ann Duffy uses lots of evocative imagery, in order to involve the reader, make him understand what life in the trenches was; infact she uses in the first lines lots of strong emotionally figures. The first example is when she mentions âthe body of dead soldiers, who lay still in No Man’s Landâ, as if that part of Land wastheir own future cemetery. Moreover the UK poet wants to underline the fact that in order to go on with the war, soldiers of both enemies troops meet in the No Man’s Land, where there were all the corpses of their fellow human beings: maybe this can be a warning and a prediction of what the fateful future reserves for them, unfortunately.
Then there is the image of the owl associated with the glove of a corpse, which can refers to death; even the use of some adjectives make us reflect about the horrible situation of the life during that years; for examble the word âgrimâ linked to the trenches or âacresâ associated with the pain.
Another evocative imagery is in the last line, when Carol Ann Duffy declares the way the soldiers were buried. In fact, since there were lots of dead soldiers, they were buried in mass graves and this is a tragic image, in contrast with the fact that at the beginning of the poem, Carol Ann Duffy declares the name of some soldiers, giving them an identity, which the lost after the death during the battle. After telling the way in which they are interred, Carol Ann Duffy make a reference to the psalm, which the priest said when when you bury someone: in my opinion, she wants to chriticize the Church and its role, which were neither against nor in favour of the war.
During her poem, Carol Ann Duffy lots of times make uses aliteration in order to create alienation. The first example is when she mentions the name of the soldiers both the German one’s at the beginning( âFreddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frankâ) and the British one’s in the middle of the passage(âHarry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinzâ). Here Carol Ann Duffy shows that even if they were enemy in the battle field, there is something that join them, which is the fact that they are all human beings with their own, but at the same time common, soffering. Even in the sentence â a boy from Stroud stared at a starâ there is this use of alliteration( -st), which somehow isolated the soldier, who looks in the sky, thinking of his mother. The last example of alliteration in this poem is âwith wistles wavesâ that contrasts the first line, in which Carol Ann Duffy speaks about the death soldiers. However, even if Carol Ann Duffy speaks about the brotherhood between the soldiers, who are all human beings, she ended the poem with a sad view of the war, because she says that all these montary happy scenes will end, because the soldiers are in a middle of a war and the other men, who now play, speak with them, are however their enemies.
Well done!
“The Christmas Truce” is a poem written by Carol Ann Duffy. The poem is about German and British soldiers in the trenches during the World War I. They declared a momentary truce for the Christmas Day in 1914. Duffy underlines the condition of life in the trenches in order to underline the importance of this truce. The description of the horror of war makes us understand the damages that are inflicted on the soldiers, fot example: “men who would drown in mud, be gassed, or shot, or vaporised by falling shells..”. By using two languages in her poem, German and English, the poet wants to underline that the soldiers are human being even if their nationality is different, and for all people it was Christmas Day. In fact they sang together, they exchanged food, alcohol, gifts and cigarettes. The poet uses alliteration in all poetry, fot example in the names: “Freddy, Franz, Friedrich, Frank..” or “Harry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinz,..”, it is to underline the fraternal feeling for different soldiers, because they are all human being and not German or British, but simply men. The alliteration of “w”: “with whistles, waves, cheers, shouts, laughts..” suggests the sharing of the same conditions despite the nationality of soldiers. The alliteration of “f” in line 24: “the frozen, foreign fields were acres of pain..” suggests a sense of cold and of “s” in line 6: “a boy from Stroud stared at a star”; these two pictures symbolize the conditions of the place, in which soldiers had to live in.
Since I was a child, I grew up with my grandfather telling me stories about the Second World War. In this way, I always had clear what a war was, but nowaday I understand that probably the ideas I had were the figments of my joung immagination.
Sincerly I was not aware about Christmas Truce before reading the poem by Carol Ann Duffy, but I must admit that it is enlightening. The poem âThe Christmas Truceâ helps me to grasp how the soldiers felt themselves; even if I think that it is impossible to put ourselves in theirâs place. Sometimes I think about the smell, the mud, the weather, the mess, the shouts that a man live in a trench but then I understand that all I have thought is not comparable to the reality.
In the history books and graveyards it is full of unknown soldiers, and I think there is nothing worse than dying without a name. Carol Ann Duffy had got it right. The most particular aspect of her poetry is that she tries to give a name to everybody, not only the soldiers but even to guns (through personification). In the second stanza the barbed wire seem to be alive! The same happens in No Manâs Land where the lying corpses look like bodies awakened by Christmas song.
The poem it is full of imagery which remember me not only the horror of wars but in particular they give me a feeling of hope: for exaple the bird who sing in a copse of trees behind the lines.
In the entire poem there are a lot of alliteration which represent different meanings:
– âFreddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frank..â. This allitteration underlines that the soldiers are , first of all, enemies.
– âA boy from Stroud stared at a star to meet his motherâs eyesight there.â. Carol Ann Duffy wants to enphasise that probably the joung soldier will never see again his mother.
– âWith wistles, waves, cheers, shout, laughs.â. Using the alliteration of âwâ the poet describes the different soldiersâ behaviour during the ceased fire.
These are in my opinion the most significant alliteration in the text.
Li Calzi Emanuele VF
Thank you for writing very personal considerations. When I was a child myself, my grandfather (on my mum’s side) told me anecdotes about the Great War and World War II. They are still branded in my mind and this is why I was so moved when I first learnt about the Christmas Truce. As a teacher I could not share it with you!
In this poem Carol Ann Duffy does a fantastic description of the âniceâ and âbadâ aspects of the war, particularly of the life in the âgrim trenchesâ, as she herself says in the poem. Indeed while she describes the curious and happy event of the âChristmas Truceâ of 1914, in which German and British soldiers, as killing machines, âbecomesâ human being, and met each other in No Man’s Land in order to celebrate together and to exchange wishes and gifts; she describes the background, that is, the horror of the trenches: men, with âstiff hairâ, because of the extremely cold athmosphere; or the liquid mud that covered trenches’ floor, which was it itself hardened because of freeze. But the most striking fact, according to me, it it that the same men, who maybe tomorrow would drown in mud, or be gassed, or shot, or vaporised by falling shells, are hearing, singing, and dancing with the other soldiers from the other side to celebrate Christmas. They continue singing all night long, and the day after they bury the dead, always singing yes, but, singing the psalm of burial. This continuos opposition of nice and happy moments of the Christmas celebration with the sad and grim images of the trenches are for me the most curious aspect of this poem.
This oppositions are even subtitled with the very-well-use of allitteration: for example at the beginning, when she writes : âFreddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frankâ (allitteration of âFr-â), giving an identity to the German soldiers, or end on when she writes other names: âHarry, Hugo, Hermann, Henry, Heinzâ (allitteration of âHâ), but now she writes both German and English names, because the soldiers want to know themselves, want to meet themselves, and that is what happens with âChristmas Truceâ. Another allitteration is almost in the middle of the poem when he writes: âThe frozen, foreign fields…â (allitteration of âfâ), when she is describing No Man’s Land, as a desolate land, which is only an âacres of painâ, where there are dead corpses and nothing more.
Mattia 5F
In the poem âChristmas Truceâ there are lots of evocative imagery of the damage caused by the war.
In the line 2, the phrase:â the dead lay still in No Manâs Landâ represents the psychological aspect of the soldiers because they knew they were going to die in a fight. The same aspect is represented in the last verse of the second stanza:â An owl swooped on a rat on the glove of a corpseâ.
In line 8 the expression â an owlâ and in line 11 the word âsilenceâ could be linked to fatal that had touched and killed lots of people during the war.
As the author pointed out in line 22 âno sign of lifeâ, every man lived without hope because they saw death everywhere.
They knew they were destined to die during WWI. But in the other hand they were already dead because they were surrendered by mud as if they were buried.
2. In the poem there are two evident examples of alliteration: in line 3 â Freddie, Franz, Friedrich, Frankâ and in line 45â Harry, Hugo, Hermann, Heinzâ. The author wrote that names to emphasised one of the most important themes; without a uniform a soldier is a humane being with his life, family and his own identity.
Due to the alliteration the reader could focus on in the poemâs concepts and themes. There are lots of alliteration in the poem and the repetitions of T and F could be linked to the sound of the rifle shotgun that had characterised the war.
Giada Blasut