Abstract

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The workshop was designed in two stages in order to give the students an introduction to some of the literature which would be discussed during the workshop. The first stage was an overview of the Australian Great War Poetry project, where introductory facts were explained and demonstrated. It was made clear that there are strong differences between English poetry from the Great War and Australian poetry from the same time. Explanations were given as to why not many people know anything about Australian Great War Poetry, and what was being done to remedy the situation. The next stage of the workshop was to look closely at some of the Australian poets from the Great War and answer questions about the poetry. The questions were broken into categories, so that the students could begin to understand the importance of question type.

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The various question types were: questions of fact, general questions of the poem, and specific questions of the poem. Questions about the poets themselves were not covered in this workshop. The students were broken into three groups and given a folder called “The Australian Great War Poetry Miniature Library”. This folder consisted of the following documents:

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• Short biographies

• Relevant historical notes

• AGWP inclusion criteria

• Example poet category numbers and how to create them

• Examples of Australian Great War Poetry – 5 poems

• Questions of fact

• General questions of the poem

• Specific questions of the poem

• Red Cross documents on Douglas Meggy

 

The three groups then had to complete a set of tasks using The Australian Great War Poetry Miniature Library to help find answers. By doing this, the students would be given a small taste of some of the research involved.

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1. Retrieve one of the five poems

2. Answer the two questions of fact

   1. Who is the author?

   2. What is the author’s primary inclusion category?

      1. 1C: Soldier, 2C: Nurse, 3C: Civilian Male, 4C: Civilian Female, 5C: Unknown Service/Civilian, 6C: Foreign Pro-Aus, 7C: Prediction, 8C: Anon

      2. AGWP inclusion code

3. Answer the ten general questions of the poem

   1. What is the theme of the poem?

   2. What is your response to the poem? Why?

   3. Is the poem pro or anti-war?

   4. Can you find any indications, other than the poet’s name, who wrote the poem? Soldier, civilian, male, female?

   5. What is the standout moment in the poem?

   6. What value does the poem have with regards to history?

   7. Does the poem fulfil and functions such as informing, requesting, protesting, mourning, etc.?

   8. Who is the poem’s voice?

   9. If the poem’s voice is not that of the poet, is there any connection between the two?

   10. What significance does the poem have for the poet?

4. Answer the ten specific questions of the poem – an example set is taken from Group 1, Leon Gellert’s The Last to Leave (There were 15 sets of different questions related to the specific poet.)

   1. Why does Gellert say that the graces ‘bowed’?

   2. Why does Gellert whisper, ‘what of these’ and ‘what of these’?

   3. What does Gellert mean by ‘unwritten memories’?

   4. What does Gellert mean by ‘the epics of the trees’?

   5. Who are the ‘minstrels’?

   6. Who do the waves and the trees represent?

   7. Why does Gellert use the word ‘moaning’? What does it signify?

   8. What does the number a ‘thousand’ signify?

   9. Who are the last to leave?

   10. What might Gellert mean by the word ‘slept’ in the last line?

5. Once the tasks were completed, the students would present their findings to the class

 

The conclusions to the process would help the students realise that the poetry they had now researched could be used as historical documents of witnesses, as opposed to mere aesthetic musings of artistic people. The poets and poems included were the following:

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• Group 1

  1. Leon Gellert – The Last to Leave

  2. Frank Westbrook – Dawn

  3. Oliver Hogue – The Horses Stay Behind

  4. Tom Skeyhill – My Little Wet Home in the Trench

  5. Frederic Manning – The Face

• Group 2

  1. Frederic Manning – Grotesque

  2. James Griffyth Fairfax - The Forest of the Dead

  3. Mrs P.R. Meggy - Lone Pine

  4. Mrs P.R. Meggy - His Balaclava Cap

  5. May Leach – Will - Hannah Chatwin – My Boy

• Group 3

  1. Henry Lawson – The Star of Australasia & My Army, O, my Army!

  2. C.J. Dennis – The Austral-aise

  3. Mary Gilmore – War

  4. May Kidson – The Mothers’ Battalion

  5. Margery Ruth Betts - The Young Dead

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