Use of English PRO

In primary school, we (0) WERE introduced to poetry (1) ............ a punishment. Failing to deliver a composition on (2) ............, I was ordered to memorise 15 lines of Scott. Nineteen forty, that was. In second form, we finally connected with an admirable Scottish class master (3) ............ was a passionate poetry lover. A veteran of the Great War, Mr McLetchie told us that (4) ............ the nightly bombardments on the Somme, he fixed a candle (5) ............ his steel helmet, which enabled him to read poetry. Unfortunately, we were not yet ready for the pretty stanzas of Keats, Shelley or Wordsworth. I mean, "A host of golden daffodils"? Forget it. We dismissed (6) ............ lines as girlie stuff, remote (7) ............ the experience of our own city streets. What we needed as an introduction was an anthology that featured poets who addressed (8) ............ directly in our own idiom, like W H Auden or e e cummings.