Words of War

Last term, our Year 9 students greatly enjoyed Words of War which was a performance of Wilfred Owen’s World War I poems.

The performance also told the story of the poet’s life as a British soldier who fought and died on the Western Front. His poems captured the horrific realism of war and were superbly acted out by the theatre company Poetry in Action.

I thought that the performance of Wilfred Owen’s poems was really entertaining. It taught me that the views of the soldiers were completely different to the people back home. The way that the performers acted out the poems was interesting, and they made them easier to understand. I have always been interested in poems and this gave me a better idea of what I could do with my poems.

– Scarlett McMillan

During and after the performance I learnt that there is more to war than fighting and guns. The amount of pressure and expectations on the men would have been super overwhelming. The fear of dying any second haunted the men. I really enjoyed this performance and would recommend it to others.

– Lahni Hall

I learnt from the performance how tragic WWI was and how Wilfred Owen expressed that through his poems. I really liked how the actors performed the play and gave us background information about the poet.

– Kristian Panagiotopoulos

I learnt that the poems that are the best poems, are written in the darkest moments. I liked the entire performance as it was exemplary.

– Fredrick Hickey

I really liked the performance as the actors were extremely talented and enthusiastic. It also provided great insight into the suffering and horror of WWI. The performance showed the soldiers as individual men instead of the group they are often presented as. It was also comforting to know that there were those at the time who saw the war as a waste of lives.

– Katie Brasnett