Questions and Activities

Cover: Images

1. How do the images on the cover relate to each other?

2. To what historical incidents do they relate?

Wendell Berry: To a Siberian Woodsman

1. Can you draw the picture from the magazine that so inspired Wendell Berry?

2. Can you draw a picture of Wendell Berry's home as he describes it?

3. To what period of history does the likely poem refer?

4. Can you find a photo that inspires you to express your global connection?

5. Why do you like or dislike this poem?

Jorge Luis Borges: Juan Lopez and John Ward

1. Do you see any parallels between Borges's poem and Berry's?

2. What world events may have inspired Borges's poem?

Wilfred Owen: Dulce et Decorum Est

1: Does Wilfred Owen believe it is sweet and honorable to die for one's country? Do you? Explain.

2. What period of warfare is Owen describing?

3. Can you draw a picture of one of the characters in the poem? Write what they are thinking.

4. Find out what the gas is to which Owen refers.


David Krieger: For Every Hibakusha
Sankichi Toge: Give Back Peace
Bertolt Brecht: Untitled Excerpt

1. What connections do you see among the three poems?

2. Write a journal as one of the people Krieger or Brecht names in the poem.

3. Write a passage before and a passage after the dropping of the bomb.

4. Read John Hershey's Hiroshima, Laurence Yep's novella Hiroshima, or Toshi Maruki's picture book Hiroshima No Pika.

5. Learn more about nuclear disarmament and groups that work to abolish nuclear weapons.


Felix Pollack: Speaking: The Hero

1. What is your reaction to this poem? Write a letter to the poet, to the speaker, or to any of the characters mentioned in the poem.

2. How does this poem differ from traditional views of war heroes?

3. How does this poem compare to Owen's poem?


William Stafford: Untitled

1. Compare Stafford's poem to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

2. What is your reaction to Stafford's poem?

Denise Levertov: Misnomer

1. What is the misnomer in the poem?

2. Look at some of Leonardo da Vinci's war inventions (link below). Do you agree with Levertov or not? Explain.

3. Look at some of the anti-war art linked on the pages below.

4. Compare some of the paintings or write your reactions to some of them.


Naomi Shihab Nye: For Mohammed Zeid of Gaza, Age 15

1. Who are the sirs the poet mentions in the first line of the poem?

2. To what world events might this poem refer?

3. Read the poem Blood on the Nye poetry link (below).

4. What about the author's background might affect her poetry?


Walt Whitman: Drum Taps
Walt Whitman: War Wounds

1. How do you compare these two poems in terms of what they say about war?

2. Are there other poems in the collection these poems to which these poems relate?

3. Read about Whitman's service as a war nurse in the Civil War.


Gwendolyn Brooks: A Little Girl's Poem

1. How does this poem compare to that of Wendell Berry?

2. What is your reaction to this poem? Explain.


David Krieger: Today is Not a Good Day for War

1. How do you react to this poem?

2. Visit Krieger's website Waging Peace (link below) and see other poetry about war and peace.

3. Write your own poem about war and peace.

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AFSC: Eyes Wide Open
http://www.afsc.org/eyes/about-the-exhibit.htm
American Friends Service Committee's Eyes Wide Open exhibit uses boots of soldiers and shoes of civilians to tell the sad story of the human cost of war. On this site is information about the exhibit as well as a 3-minute movie. The Resources section provides lesson plans on budget priorities and design of war memorials. Student follow-up activities could include discussion and debates as well as exhibits of personal artifacts to promote peaceful solutions to local and global problems.

Sankichi Toge, Japan (monument at Hiroshima)
http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/peacesite/English/Stage1/1-2/1-2-14E.html