Miners

MINERS
WILFRED OWEN
FIRST STANZA
• There was a whispering in • Who or what is whispering?

my hearth, • Where was it coming from?
• A sigh of the coal, • What mood do the words, 'sigh'

and 'wistful' create?
• Grown wistful of a former
• What is the effect/purpose of the
earth rhyme scheme?
• It might recall.
SECOND STANZA
• Who is listening?
• I listened for a tale of
leaves • What is he listening to?
• Who is he listening to?
• And smothered ferns
• What is the poet referring to ?
• Frond-forests, and the low
• Do the lines rhyme?
sly lives
• What is the purpose ?
• Before the fawns
THIRD STANZA
• What are steam-phantoms?
• My fire might show steam-
phantoms simmer • What literary device is used?
• Why is time in capital letter?
• From Time's old cauldron,
• What is a cauldron?
• Before the birds made nests in
• What is the connection
summer, between simmer and
• Or men had children. summer?
• Cauldron and children?
FOURTH STANZA
• What technique is used by
• But the coals were the poet here , 'coals
murmuring of their mine, murmuring.'
• And moans down there • What is the murmur about?

• What is meant by 'wry
• Of boys that slept wry
sleep?'
sleep, and men
• What images come to your
• Writhing for air. mind with the
phrase, 'writhing for air?'
FIFTH STANZA
• Whose bones are these?
• I saw white bones in the
• What idea comes to your mind,
cinder-shard,
with the phrase , bones without
• Bones without number. number?
• What is the effect of the
• For many hearts with coal
comparisons between the two
are charred, phrases? 'many hearts' and 'few
remember'
• And few remember.
SIXTH STANZA
• I thought of all that worked • What do the dark pits refer to?
dark pits • Why are death and peace in
capital letters?
• Of war, and died
• What is meant by 'death reputes
• Digging the rock where peace lies indeed?'
Death reputes • What is the purpose of the colon?
• Peace lies indeed:
SEVENTH STANZA
• What is the image created by the
• Comforted years will sit soft
first line?
–chaired,
• What is the significance of the
• In rooms of amber, usage of these two words?
• The years will stretch their • What is being compared in this

stanza?
hands, well-cheered
• By our life's ember;
EIGHTH STANZA
• The centuries will burn rich loads • What is meant by 'the
centuries'?
• With which we groaned,
• Who groaned and why?
• Whose warmth shall lull their
• What is meant by the third line?
dreaming lids,
• There is use of frequent
• While songs are crooned
enjambment in this stanza.
• But they will not dream of us poor Where and why?
lads
• What is the purpose of the last
• Lost in the ground. two lines?
SUMMARY OF THE POEM
• The poet imagines the very beginnings of earth's history when dense vegetation fell
and was compressed into what is now dug out and burnt as coal
• He thinks of the miners who risk their lives to do this work and it reminds him of the
soldiers in the trenches who dig pits of war.
• Both risk their lives so that unthinking people can sit safely and comfortably at home
in front of a coal fire, never dreaming of the poor lads lost in the ground who work to
keep them safe and warm at home.
• These very different settings and atmospheres are fully evoked by the language of

the poem.
STRUCTURE OF THE POEM
• Seven regular four-line stanzas and a final longer one of six lines.
• The poem has a circular effect.
• He begins with the poet sitting in front of his fire at home and imagining the coal
whispering to him of the distant past
• He realises that the coal speaks of the mine and the men working there, suffering deep
below the ground in the airless pits.
• These four stanzas form the first half of the poem.
• There is then one stanza about soldiers in the trenches suffering similarly
• The two final stanzas return to the home, the fireside where now no one remembers the
suffering which has gone into providing such warmth and security.
POETIC METHODS OF THE POEM
• PERSONIFICATION
• Coal is personified as whispering and murmuring
• Time is like an old witch with a cauldron producing steam-
phantoms
• Death : Years sitting soft chaired and stretching their hands to the
fire.
• Personifying the years as sitting by the fire and being warmed is
more effective than just saying that people did it as the emphasis
is on the practise over the years.
• DICTION IS EVOCATIVE
• Thinking of the far distant past before the birds made nests in summer/ Or men
had children , he imagines the life forms as low and sly
• The ferns have been smothered to create coal and this links with the men who
are gasping for air in the mine.
• He uses the physical sensory qualities of a coal fire- its hissing and its cinders – to

imagine the coal speaking or creating ghosts from Time's cauldron.
• The white remains of the fire when it has burned down, remind him of
the numberless bones of those who have died in the mine.
• Use of First Person Narrative
• He begins in the first person singular as himself or his persona
sitting by the fire and imagining where the coal comes from in
past and present and its voice speaking to him. 'I listened, I saw.
• But by the time he gets to the final two stanzas this has
developed into the first person plural our life, we groaned, as if
he has associated himself entirely with the
miners, 'us poor lads.'
• Use of First Person Narrative
• This empathy gives the poem a very poignant quality
• The tone of the poem parallels its structure, moving from a
reflective tone at the beginning to a sense of anger and
sadness that the miners and the soldiers have been
forgotten
• Use of half rhyme
• The use of the abab pattern throughout links the words effectively in
meaning as well as sound, for example hearth and earth, where one
depends on the other, mine and men similarly.
• Then reaches a climax in the final longer stanza where there are two
sets of three rhymed words : loads, lids and lads and groaned, crooned
and ground. The contrast between the domestic scenes where
people are dozing and babies are being sung to and the wretched
conditions suffered by those who have provided their comfort is very
striking.
Themes
• Sacrifices
• Connections : Past and the present
• People
• Gratitude
• Don’t take things for granted

Miners

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Miners

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MINERS

• There was a whispering in • Who or what is whispering?

• A sigh of the coal, • What mood do the words, 'sigh'

• And moans down there • What is the murmur about?

• The years will stretch their • What is being compared in this

• These very different settings and atmospheres are fully evoked by the language of

• The poem has a circular effect.

• These four stanzas form the first half of the poem.

• There is then one stanza about soldiers in the trenches suffering similarly

• He uses the physical sensory qualities of a coal fire- its hissing and its cinders – to

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