Break of Day in the Trenches - Cattaneo

92 Text Bank
Break of Day in the Trenches
Isaac Rosenberg
Collected Poems (1937)
WARM-UP
1
DISCUSS with the rest of the class in what way World War I was different from the
previous wars.
The poem presents an insight into the life in the trenches and it is an example of how a trivial event
may lead to a painful reflection.
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The darkness crumbles1 away.
It is the same old druid2 Time as ever,
Only a live thing leaps3 my hand,
A queer4 sardonic rat,
As I pull the parapet’s poppy5
To stick behind my ear.
Droll6 rat, they would shoot you if they knew
Your cosmopolitan sympathies.
Now you have touched this English hand
You will do the same to a German
Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure
To cross the sleeping green between.
It seems you inwardly grin7 as you pass
Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes8,
Less chanced than you for life,
Bonds to the whims9 of murder,
Sprawled in the bowels10 of the earth,
The torn11 fields of France.
What do you see in our eyes
At the shrieking iron and flame
Hurled through still heavens12?
What quaver13 – what heart aghast14?
Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins
Drop15, and are ever dropping;
But mine in my ear is safe –
Just a little white with the dust.
COMPREHENSION
2
READ the poem and answer the questions.
1 What time of the day is it?
2 What is the speaker doing?
3 What happens to him suddenly?
4 What is it going to do?
5 What is the place setting?
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crumbles. Si
frantuma.
druid. Dei Druidi
(il riferimento alla
religione celtica dà
una dimensione
mitologica al
contesto temporale).
leaps. Supera d’un
balzo.
queer. Strano,
eccentrico.
poppy. Papavero.
Droll. Buffo.
inwardly grin.
Sogghigni
nell’intimo.
limbs, haughty
athletes. Membra,
superbi atleti.
Bonds to the whims.
Legati ai capricci.
Sprawled in the
bowels. Stravaccati
nelle viscere.
torn. Dilaniati.
shrieking …
heavens? Ferro e
fuoco stridente /
scagliato attraverso
cieli immobili?
quaver. Tremolio,
vibrazione.
aghast. Atterrito.
Drop. Cadono.
92  Text Bank
6 What does the speaker wonder?
7 Where is the flower at the end?
ANALYSIS
3
WRITE DOWN the words used to describe the rat. What connotation do they give to the
animal?
4
DESCRIBE the soldiers. How does their condition contrast with that of the rat?
5
FIND the images the poet uses to convey the horror of warfare.
6
EXPLAIN what the poppy symbolises.
7
DEFINE the tone of the poem.