Burial of Sir John Moore After Corunna
“The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna”
1. Re-tell the story
“The burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna” is all about a legendary British soldier. Sir John Moore was a Lieutenant – General in the British army and was born in Glasgow on November 13th 1761. He joined the British army in 1776 and saw his first action during the American war of independence in 1778.
This martial poem is based on an incident in the Peninsular War, which was part of the generation-long war between France, under Napoleon Bonaparte, and pretty much everyone else in Europe. Napoleon engineered an overthrow in Spain in early 1808, but the Spanish were unhappy about it, a popular insurrection began, and the British tried to join in with the Spanish against the French.
The Spanish proved to be difficult allies, though, and a British army under Sir John Moore was forced to retreat to the port of Corunna, on Spain's north-western tip, from where they were to be evacuated back to Britain. The retreat had all the problems of discipline and morale that every retreat has, with the additional hardships of bad terrain and appalling weather. Worse yet: when they got to Corunna on January 11, 1809, the British troopships that were to evacuate them had not yet arrived, so Sir John had to organize defences and fight a battle against the French. In the battle he was mortally wounded.
In not wanting the French’s morale to be given a boost with the realization that the inspirational leader of the British army had died, they decided to bury him in the night; in the hope the French would be none the wiser.
Even though Sir John Moore was an iconic figure, a man that the British army looked up to and admired, they could not give him a proper military funeral fitting for a man of his stature in order to keep the French in the dark about the terrible tragedy that has occurred.
2. Explain the context of the poem
This poem has a very patriotic theme to it, words like hero, warrior and
1. Re-tell the story
“The burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna” is all about a legendary British soldier. Sir John Moore was a Lieutenant – General in the British army and was born in Glasgow on November 13th 1761. He joined the British army in 1776 and saw his first action during the American war of independence in 1778.
This martial poem is based on an incident in the Peninsular War, which was part of the generation-long war between France, under Napoleon Bonaparte, and pretty much everyone else in Europe. Napoleon engineered an overthrow in Spain in early 1808, but the Spanish were unhappy about it, a popular insurrection began, and the British tried to join in with the Spanish against the French.
The Spanish proved to be difficult allies, though, and a British army under Sir John Moore was forced to retreat to the port of Corunna, on Spain's north-western tip, from where they were to be evacuated back to Britain. The retreat had all the problems of discipline and morale that every retreat has, with the additional hardships of bad terrain and appalling weather. Worse yet: when they got to Corunna on January 11, 1809, the British troopships that were to evacuate them had not yet arrived, so Sir John had to organize defences and fight a battle against the French. In the battle he was mortally wounded.
In not wanting the French’s morale to be given a boost with the realization that the inspirational leader of the British army had died, they decided to bury him in the night; in the hope the French would be none the wiser.
Even though Sir John Moore was an iconic figure, a man that the British army looked up to and admired, they could not give him a proper military funeral fitting for a man of his stature in order to keep the French in the dark about the terrible tragedy that has occurred.
2. Explain the context of the poem
This poem has a very patriotic theme to it, words like hero, warrior and