Owen Sheers is a Welsh poet whose work examines the inextricable link between humans and nature. Originally published in Sheers's 2006 poetry collection Skirrid Hill, "Mametz Wood" is a poem that reckons with events from the past; specifically, the implications of war on humanity and the earth. Like an archaeological excavation, the poem uncovers artifacts and creates meaning based on the battle that occurred at Mametz Wood during World War I.
In the poem, farmers uncover the bones of young soldiers who were told to walk toward machine gun nests in the woods. A personified earth stands sentinel over a mass grave and reflects upon what took place there. The title "Mametz Wood" refers to one of the locations where the 38th (Welsh) Division fought during the Battle of the Somme. According to The Poetry Archive, Sheers wrote the poem after visiting the Somme battlefield. Upon seeing a photograph of a recently discovered grave, Sheers was pulled to write about it. The most striking feature of this grave was that someone had taken the time to bury the soldiers with linked arms. Using somewhat gruesome details, Sheers evokes the soldiers as skeletons that dance and sing, their music only now audible with the discovery of the grave. This implies a responsibility on the part of the reader to consider the ways in which war leaves its mark on humanity and the earth.
Skirrid Hill was well received. It won a Somerset Maugham Prize, was the recipient of the 2018 Wilfred Owen Poetry Award, and was long-listed for the Welsh Book of the Year. According to a note within the book, the name "Skirrid" comes "from the Welsh...Ysgariad meaning divorce or separation," a thematic through line in Sheers's work. "Mametz Wood" traverses the separations of time and death in order to humanize those affected by the violence of war.
