A-Level English Literature

Imagine my delight at reading this blog post. I've been an examiner for Language, not Literature, so it is reassuring to find that my near obsession (you must have noticed it right from first looking at 'Six Young Men') with the idea of avoiding a simplistic view that everything must be read through the lens of how terrible the war was, is not wide of the mark.

I guess these will be worth a look then.

I think I go along with this reading, but a reading of the poem as bleakly ironic is surely plausible as well. I concur with the blogger that students' tendency to read everything through a 'futility of war lens' should caution us against automatically assuming that anything positive must surely be masking the horrors of war. Remember there's no reason why a character joking about dirt in tea should not actually be concerned about dirt in tea. When I'm cycling to school there's a risk I might be knocked off my bike and killed, but I don't spend much of my riding time thinking about that fact, and if I happen to notice the beautiful autumn leaves, it isn't necessarily to hide the reality that I might at any moment be ground under the wheels of a bus. Admittedly, cycling to school doesn't have the same stresses as trench warfare, I imagine, but I think the principle that almost whatever their circumstances, humans still have ordinary concerns and feelings still holds true. 

... and rather good it is too.

As you can see, this website is geared specifically towards the very course we are studying. Hooray! As you can also see, if you are logged in to Diigo you can highlight web-pages and make notes on them. Even hoorayer! I look forward to seeing you litter the internet with your stickies. Get to it.