1. By James Fenton

2.  Make a list of all the wars you can think of
prior to 2000.
 Now a list of all the wars and conflicts you
can think of that exist today.
 Many people have strong feelings and
opinions about war. Why is this? What are
yours?

3. F 1. Focus on the form of the poem , looking at the structure,
punctuation, line lengths and the arrangement of the poem’s
stanzas. How do these features add interest and meaning to the
poem? Also examine the arrangements of the words, phrases and
L sentences in the poem.
2. Examine the language used in the poem, looking at the meaning
I of words and whether they have negative or positive connotations.
3. Look at the techniques, imagery and poetic language that has
R been used? How do these techniques bring out the main themes
and ideas in the poem?
4. How does the poet make use of rhyme, repetition and rhythm?
T Why does he do this?
5. What are the poet’s main ideas that he brings out in the poem
and how does he do this? Explain the feelings that the poet
Y conveys throughout the poem. Describe the poet’s attitude to his
subject. Does this change as the poem progresses? Carefully
examine the tone throughout the poem and find vocabulary to
back up your discussion.
6. How do you react to this poem? Does it bring any particular
thoughts to mind? Which poems would you compare this one
with?

4.  BIOGRAPHY
Poet and critic James Fenton was born in Lincoln in 1949, and was brought up in
Yorkshire and Staffordshire. He was educated at a musical preparatory school
attached to Durham Cathedral, where he was a chorister, progressing from there
to Repton public school in Derbyshire. He then studied for three years at Magdalen
College, Oxford.
In 1968 he won the Newdigate Prize for best poem by an Oxford undergraduate on
a set subject, later published in pamphlet form as Our Western Furniture
(1968). After graduation he became a freelance journalist before joining the staff of
New Statesman.
His first full poetry collection was Terminal Moraine (1972), after which he won an
Eric Gregory Award, using the money to travel to South East Asia as a freelance
reporter. He returned to become New Statesman's political correspondent at
Westminster, and over the next few years worked for various newspapers as
journalist, critic and reviewer.
His poetry collection, The Memory of War: Poems 1968-1982 (1982), based on his
experiences in South East Asia, brought him to public attention, and was followed
by Children in Exile in 1983. His most recent poetry collection is Out of Danger
(1993).

5.  James Fenton has also written several books of non-fiction, including Leonardo's
Nephew: Essays on Art and Artists (1998), A Garden from a Hundred Packets of
Seeds (2001) and The Strength of Poetry (2001). He became Professor of
Poetry at Oxford University in 1994, and in 2002 wrote An Introduction to English
Poetry (2002). He has also translated two operas: Rigoletto (1982) and Simon
Boccanegra (1985) for the English National Opera. His libretto from Salman
Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories was performed by New York City
Opera in 2003, and in 2004, his translation of Tirso de Molina's Tamar's Revenge
was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

 His most recent book, School of Genius (2006), is an illustrated history of the
Academy from its foundation to the present day. A Selected Poems was also
published in 2006.

 James Fenton has edited The New Faber Book of Love Poems (2006) and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (2006).

 In 2007, James Fenton was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

6. One man shall smile one day and say goodbye.
Two shall be left, two shall be left to die.
One man shall give his best advice.
Three man shall pay the price.
One man shall live, live to regret.
Four men shall meet the debt.
One man shall wake from the terror to his bed.
Five men shall be dead.
One man to five. A million men to one.
And still they die. And still the war goes on.

7.  “ James Fenton, the poet of 'Cambodia' spent several years in
Asia, touring countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam and
Indochina and became distressed and exceedingly more and
more incensed by the atrocious war crimes being committed
by those in authority. He wrote most of his poems upon his
return to America, but 'Cambodia' was written while he was
visiting Southern Asia. Cambodia was a country devastated by
war, and over 2 million civilians died in the various conflicts.
The conflict he is referring to here is when American troops
conducted illegal bombing raids under the guise of killing Viet-
Cong they thought were fleeing into Cambodia. These
bombing raids cost 750,000 innocent civilians their lives. ”

13.  Lyric poem full of emotion about what has happened to
the Cambodian journalists who were left behind by the
other European journalists.
 A five stanza poem with each stanza consisting of a
rhyming couplet.
 Each line of the poem seems to be written in a sentence.
 The mood of each stanza is similar – it is depressing and
the poet is angry that his own people are killing more
Cambodians
as the Americans are entering Cambodian airspace on
the pretext that they are chasing the escaping Vietcong
soldiers.

14. 1. Describe the main ideas in each stanza.
2. Look at the poem’s literal meaning and then look at the
different images in the poem – see if you can find the
following imagery:-
 -Visual imagery - something seen in the mind's eye
 Auditory imagery - represents a sound
 Olfactory imagery - a smell
 Gustatory imagery - a taste
 Tactile imagery - touch, for example hardness, softness,
wetness, heat, cold Organic imagery - internal sensation:
hunger, thirst, fatigue, fear
 Kinesthetic imagery - movement or tension
 Explain the imagery you have found, give an example and
then explain the effect of the imagery.

15.  The poet is the man who smiled and left. “One man shall smile one day
and say goodbye.”
 “One” could be universal for the many Americans and foreigners who
were able to leave.
 The second line of this stanza refers to the Cambodian journalists and
officials who worked for the Americans and were unable to escape.
“Two shall be left, two shall be left to die.”
-Explain the mood and vocabulary in this stanza.
Sibilance is used “ shall smile one day” Explain the rhythm of this
sibilance and give its effect.
Assonance is used with “day and say” Explain this sound device and its
effect.
Repetition “ Two shall be left, two shall be left to die.” What is the effect
of this repetition and what meaning does it add to the poem?
Vocabulary- “to die” Explain the connotations of the word die. How
does this contrast with the vocabulary used in line 1?
Rhyme – What is the rhyme and rhythm used in the first rhyming
couplet? Explain the effect ?
Look at the vocabulary – explain the positive and negative words and why
they have been chosen by the poet and for what effect?

16. 1. Explain the mood and tone in each stanza. What feelings do
you recognise and how can you tell.
2. Describe what happens in each line and then say how the first
and second lines contrast with each other. For what effect has
the poet done this deliberately in each stanza?
3. Look at the vocabulary used and state whether it is negative or
positive and what the connotations are of the important words.
4. Discuss the various language devices in the stanzas and
explain their effects in detail.
5. Explain the use of the punctuation in each stanza. Look at full
stops and caesuras and explain why the poet has used them.
6. What are the implications the poet is trying to point out in in the
last stanza with the words “One man to five. A million men to
one.”

17. 7. Explain the idea contained in the last line
“And still they die. And still the war goes
on.”
What is the effect of this line and does it
bring out a main theme of the poem?

18. 1. Discuss the use of numbers used in each stanza by
looking at the use of “one man shall…” in the first five
stanzas and then it is contrasted with increasing numbers
in each further stanza.
2. What is the effect of this?
3. Look at the first line of the last stanza. Why does Fenton
change the numbers to “One man to five. A million men
to one”? Explain what idea is sending the readers of the
poem and who are the “million”? Explain this effect?

19.  Ingroups discuss the main themes, find
quotations to back up what you say and
them explain the effects of each theme.
 Report your findings back to your class.

20. This poem would go well with The Attack by
Siegfried Sassoon.
http://www.jamesfenton.com/