Shakespeare- Henry IV Part I

Jigsaw Activity

Sherman

This poem was written by Richard Watson Gilder after the death of Civil War general William Tecumshah Sherman in 1891. Although it was written hundreds of years after Henry IV takes place, it still focuses as honor as one of its main themes. Please read the poem all the way through. Then, complete the questions.  

1.      What group of people does this poem talk about?

2. Reread the first stanza. Why did the captain fight?

3. Do you agree with the statement “made war that war might cease?” Why or why not?

4. What picture does the second stanza evoke? What does this tell us about honor?

5. In the last stanza, what does the speaker say is better than all the ceremony that comes with being a soldier?

6. Is this idea of honor more consistent with Hotspur’s view of honor, or King Henry’s? Why or why not?

7. Is this idea of honor more consistent with Hotspur’s view of honor, or Falstaff’s? Why or why not?