Great War Poetry, What's your favorite poem. Options

[Borden Battery]

Hello Marina and "Mighty Gwyn"

Here is what I have at the moment and will present as part of the update of the complete CEF Study Group Recommended Great War website list for 1 December 2006. There are a number of other poetry websites noted, however, I am under a time deadline to bring several items to conclusion before the end of today.

I was on the Internet last night doing some "Googling" and found several of the sites later referenced by Gwyn - as I had already done up the abstracts I just carried them forward rather than re-list under your name. Some recommendations were very similar to what had already been listed, as a result I did not include them. Having said this, I was very surprized at the number of Great War poetry websites discovered in such a short time frame. Further, I will go through the recommendations listed above in this discussion thread and look to add some additional Great War poetry sites with the next update of this list.

From this list it is general procedure to follow additional "links" to other related websites. Someone may wish to undertake this action and submit additional recommended websites. Adding a short abstract in the process will guarantee imortality.

The complete CEF Study Group List of Recommended Great War websites is currently at 85 pages with another 10 pages of websites under review. This list is available at no charge to any members of the GWF. Just forward a Private Message and I can forward the complete document in Adobe pdf format.

Regards
Borden Battery



Great War Poetry - Part 29
Note: CEF Study Group member websites denoted with asterisk "*"
==============================================

War Poets Association
This page contains some links to other websites, mainly to single poet societies, which will be of interest to members of the War Poets Association and other users of this site. Please note that the WPA is not responsible for the content of these external websites. Many of these links may be repeated on other pages of this site, for example links to single poet societies from the page for that individual poet. The WPA welcomes links to its home page or other pages from relevant quality websites. Please e-mail editor@warpoets.org if you would like us to provide a link to your website. [Recommendation by marina - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.warpoets.org/links/

Modern History Sourcebook:World War I Poetry
This simple website contains some poems by Sassoon, Owen, Read, Hodgson, Gibson and Larkin. [Recommendation by marina - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1914warpoets.html

Prose & Poetry - FirstworldWar.com
An extensive summary of a wide range of Great War poets with biographies and sample poems. [Recommendation by marina - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/index.htm

Archive of Classic Poems
A small website with poems by Wilfred Owen. There are several links to other poetry websites. [Recommendation by marina - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.everypoet.com/Archive/Poetry/Wi...en_contents.htm

Where Death Becomes Absurd and Life Absurder
Literary Views of the Great War 1914-1918
A literary discussion paper from Bonn University regarding Great War poetry.
[Recommendation by marina - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.uni-erfurt.de/eestudies/eese/ar...ges/thegr68.htm

More World War One War Poetry
This simple website contains about thirty poems from the Great War.
[Recommendation by marina - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.angelfire.com/wa/warpoetry/Ww1poetry.html

120 War Poems by War
From wars of the last century, for students of literature and history.
Edited by C. Stevin and V. Bergmann
[Recommendation by marina - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://website.lineone.net/~nusquam/wpmain.htm

Lost Poets of the Great War
Harry Rusche is the author of Lost Poets of the Great War, a hypertext document on the poetry of World War I; his address is the English Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. [CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.english.emory.edu/LostPoets/index.html

The War Poets of Craiglockhart
The present Craiglockhart campus of Napier University in Edinburgh was built as a hydropathic hotel. It was requisitioned by the British army in October 1916 as a hospital for officers suffering from psychological trauma. Biographical information is provided on Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Robert Graves. The site also contains other information and links to further poetry websites. [Recommendation by marina - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://sites.scran.ac.uk/Warp/siegfried_sassoon.htm

Remembrance – bbc.co.ca
The First World War produced some of the most gifted and progressive authors, poets and artists of a generation, each channelling their individual and collective experiences into their chosen art form. [CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/remembrance/poetry/wwone.shtml

Poets of the Great War
This website generally contains a biography and some representative poems for the following: Richard Aldington, Laurence Binyon, Edmund Blunden, Rupert Brooke, Wilfrid Gibson, Robert Graves, Julian Grenfell, Ivor Gurney, David Jones, Robert Nichols, Wilfred Owen, Herbert Read, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon, Charles Sorley and Edward Thoma [CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.lib.byu.edu/~english/WWI/poets/poets.html

About.com: War Poems
This website has several good cross-indices for poets, poems, topics, countries of origin, index of first lines and an index of poems themselves. A quick reference site. [Recommendation by marina - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://europeanhistory.about.com/gi/dynami...086/toc_twp.htm

Legends and Traditions of the Great War
A selected antholgy by the Great War Society. [CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/wpoets.htm

Poems of the Great War
“The Great War 1914-1918 began as a resource for courses in World War I poetry, a topic now taught in a number of universities. The site has since grown to be of interest to anyone studying World War I. Several years ago Woodruff Library of Emory University purchased fifty volumes of poetry written between 1914 and 1918; none of these books went into second editions, so they are now rather difficult to find except in specialized collections. The Beck Center of Woodruff Library is putting these volumes and others, beginning with the poetry by women, on line as e-texts, thus making available an interesting collection of poetry from a time that witnessed an unparalleled outpouring of war poetry by the men fighting in the trenches, by the poets at home trying to raise the morale of the troops, and by the women who could do little else but volunteer as aids or wait anxiously at home for their sons, husbands, and lovers. The poems are the heart of the site, and readers will appreciate being able to search the poetry by volume, title, author, and even individual lines and words.” [CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://beck.library.emory.edu/greatwar/poe...id=Cunliffe.xml

Female Poets of the First World War:
A small website with an interesting female perspecitive on the Great War.
[Recommendation by marina - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.acls.org/op29cummings.htm#cummings

Oxford’s English Faculty - The Seminars
[Recommendation by Dragon aka Gwyn - GWF][CEF Study Group – Dec 2006]
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/projects/jtap...ials/index.html

[Desmond7]

For all the reading that we do
We'll never know the stinking glue
The mud that these men drowned in.

We yearn to know what made them tick
But I bet we'd have all gone 'on the sick'
If we were in their shoes.

But we're not and for that be glad
Because they would think us all quite mad
If they could see us now.

So as I lay me down to sleep
And tiredness to my eyes does creep
I lay down the book on Passchendaele
And drift off into pleasant dreams.

[Jim Clay]

Blimey, Des, I'm glad I just dipped into this thread. You may say "ah, it's just doggerel" (and others may agree). Me, I say "well done, my son, that's really poignant - not arf".

Jim

(though, what you're doing sleeping at this time of the day ......)

(and I hope serious Pals will excuse this light-hearted, but sincerely meant, incursion into your thread ....)

[marina]

Nice, Des!
Marina

[squirrel]

Here are a couple that I found in a little book that I bought at Talbot House last year:

A Thousand Strong - J. Scott

A thousand strong,
With laugh and song,
To charge the guns or line a trench,
We marched away one August day,
And fought beside the gallant French.

A thousand strong,
but not for long:
Some lie entombed in Belgian clay:
Some torn by shell
Lie, where they fell,
Beneath the turf of La Bassee.

But yet at night
When to the fight
Eager from camp and trench we throng,
Our comrades dead
March at our head,
And still we charge, a thousand strong!


Private Thompson - Anonymous

As Private Thompson used to say,
He couldn't stand the War;
He cursed about it every day
And every night he swore;
And, while a sense of discipline
Carried him on through thick and thin,
The mud, the shells, the cold, the din
Annoyed him more and more.

The words with which we others cursed
Seemed mild and harmless quips
Compared to those remarks which burst
From Private Thompson's lips;
Havn't you ever heard about
The Prussian Guard at X Redoubt,
How thompson's language laid them out
Before we came to grips?

[geoff501]

This threads been quiet for a while. Here's some Woodbine Willie:


THE PENSIONER

'Im and me was kids together,
Played together, went to school,
Where Miss Jenkins used to rap us
On our knuckles wiv a rule.
When we left we worked together,
At the Fact'ry, makin' jam,
Gawd 'ave mercy on us women!
I'm full up to-day--I am.
Well I minds the August Monday,
When 'e said 'e loved me true,
Underneath the copper beech tree,
With the moonbeams shining through.
Then we walked down by the River,
Silent-like an' 'and in 'and,
Till we came there by the Ketch Inn,
Where them two big willows stand
There 'e caught me roughly to 'im,
And 'is voice was 'oarse and wild,
As 'e whispered through 'is kisses,
"Will ye mother me my child?"
An' I took and kissed and kissed 'im,
Sweet as love and long as life,
Vowed while breath was in my body
I would be 'is faithful wife.
An' I seemed to see 'is baby,
Smiling as 'e lay at rest,
With 'is tiny 'and a-clutching
At the softness of my breast.
Gawd above, them days was 'eaven!
I can see the river shine
Like a band of silver ribbon;
I can feel 'is 'and in mine,
I can feel them red 'ot kisses
On my lips or on my 'air,
I can feel 'is arm tight round me,
Gawd! I tell ye it ain't fair.
Look ye what the war's done at 'im,
Lying there as still as death.
See 'is mouth all screwed and twisted,
With the pain of drawing breath!
But of course I 'ave a pension,
Coming reg'lar ev'ry week.
So I ain't got much to grouse at--
I suppose it's like my cheek,
Grousin' when a grateful country
Buys my food and pays my rent.
I should be most 'umbly grateful
That my John was one as went,
Went to fight for King and Country,
Like a 'ero and a man,
I should be most 'umbly grateful,
And just do as best I can.
But my pension won't buy kisses,
An' 'e'll never kiss again,
'E ain't got no kissin' in 'im,
Ain't got nothin' now--but pain.
Not as I would ever change 'im
For the strongest man alive.
While the breath is in my body
Still I'll mother 'im--and strive
That I keeps my face still smiling,
Though my 'eart is fit to break;
As I lives a married widow,
So I'll live on for 'is sake.
But I says--Let them as makes 'em
Fight their wars and mourn their dead,
Let their women sleep for ever
In a loveless, childless bed.
No--I know--it ain't right talkin',
But there's times as I am wild.
Gawd! you dunno 'ow I wants it--
'Ow I wants--a child--'is child.


G. A. Studdert-Kennedy

[marina]

Very powerful poem.
Marina

[marina]

Bonfire posted four lines of this on the literary challenge thread. I was rather taken with it so here's the whole poem:

The Aisne (1914-15)

We first saw fire on the tragic slopes
Where the flood-tide of France's early gain,
Big with wrecked promise and abandoned hopes,
Broke in a surf of blood along the Aisne.


The charge her heroes left us, we assumed,
What, dying, they reconquered, we preserved,
In the chill trenches, harried, shelled, entombed,
Winter came down on us, but no man swerved.


Winter came down on us. The low clouds, torn
In the stark branches of the riven pines,
Blurred the white rockets that from dusk till morn
Traced the wide curve of the close-grappling lines.


In rain, and fog that on the withered hill
Froze before dawn, the lurking foe drew down;
Or light snows fell that made forlorner still
The ravaged country and the ruined town;


Or the long clouds would end. Intensely fair,
The winter constellations blazing forth --
Perseus, the Twins, Orion, the Great Bear --
Gleamed on our bayonets pointing to the north.


And the lone sentinel would start and soar
On wings of strong emotion as he knew
That kinship with the stars that only War
Is great enough to lift man's spirit to.


And ever down the curving front, aglow
With the pale rockets' intermittent light,
He heard, like distant thunder, growl and grow
The rumble of far battles in the night, --


Rumors, reverberant, indistinct, remote,
Borne from red fields whose martial names have won
The power to thrill like a far trumpet-note, --
Vic, Vailly, Soupir, Hurtelise, Craonne . . .


Craonne, before thy cannon-swept plateau,
Where like sere leaves lay strewn September's dead,
I found for all dear things I forfeited
A recompense I would not now forego.


For that high fellowship was ours then
With those who, championing another's good,
More than dull Peace or its poor votaries could,
Taught us the dignity of being men.


There we drained deeper the deep cup of life,
And on sublimer summits came to learn,
After soft things, the terrible and stern,
After sweet Love, the majesty of Strife;


There where we faced under those frowning heights
The blast that maims, the hurricane that kills;
There where the watchlights on the winter hills
Flickered like balefire through inclement nights;


There where, firm links in the unyielding chain,
Where fell the long-planned blow and fell in vain --
Hearts worthy of the honor and the trial,
We helped to hold the lines along the Aisne.

Alan Seeger

[Uplandsboy]

I saw this on E-Bay a couple of days ago on a postcard for auction (280109955426) I thought it could apply today with modifications for society changes.

[size="5"][/size]

[/center]When the war will end!

[center]Actual evidence I have none;
But my Aunt's Charwoman's Sister's son,
Heard a Policeman on his beat,
Say to a Housemaid in Downing Street,
That he has a Brother who has a Friend,
Who knows when the war is going to end!

I could not read the poet's name so those with classical bent please tell me

[susanhemmings]

Mine is Man at Arms.
I have the picture imprinted on my brain of all those ghosts marching to the menin gate (that and Soren's portrayal of it)

and the buglars (buglers??) ................. spine tingling stuff

(i don't understand how anyone who wrote something so poignant never signed their name to it) (or does anyone know who wrote it)

[marina]

Have you seen this, Susan?
Longstaff's painting of the ghosts at the Menin Gate?

http://www.search.com/reference/Menin_Gate

Marina

[susanhemmings]

Marina, It's a beautiful painting and right at that very moment I was scouting around looking for Soren's sketch and got redirected to another similar page.
I just love the poem and having experienced the ceremony for the first time (I went back three nights in a row) on my first visit to the battlefields a couple of years ago I just cannot get it out of my head.
Thank you for bringing the other images to my attention (it was very kind of you). All images of the Menin Gate are special in their own way, but the painting takes the biscuit. And the history behind it makes it even more special. I just wish I knew who wrote that poem. Something so poignant and no one puts their name to it.
Thank you again Marina,

Susan.

[marina]

Glad you like it, Susan. It's a wonderful painting.
I'm afraid the poem is by our old friend ANON.
Marina

[susanhemmings]

Thanks Marina.
Just sad. Mind you ANON wrote lots of lovely stuff in his time (!)
susan.

[marina]

Interesting account of how a meeting that never took place.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/clas...ey_scotland.htm

Marina

[Michael Johnson]

Not Great War, although its author was connected through the loss of his son, and his work with CWGC.

The snow lies thick on Valley Forge,
The ice on the Delaware,
But the poor dead soldiers of King George
They neither know nor care—

Not though the earliest primrose break
On the sunny side of the lane,
And scuffling rookeries awake
Their England's spring again.

For the whole poem, see http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/show/9388-Rudya...rican-Rebellion.

This stanza is particularly apropos:

Each for his land, in a fair fight,
Encountered, strove, and died,
And the kindly earth that knows no spite
Covers them side by side.

[Yoshi]

Some very touching poems, many of which I have never read before.

[susanhemmings]

I really love Man at Arms Poem ..
Stumbled across the following in "With a siege Battery in France - 303 Siege Battery RGA 1916 - 1919"
Seems a sort of parody on Man at Arms. Has the same rhythmic drum:

The Heading is: "There is a Battery of Howitzers on the Rhine Bank". Apparently, from the book, The first gun of the first battery (British) Heavy Artillery to reach the Rhine..... (picture that accompanies is of a bridge over the Rhine, one lone gun and a soldier on sentry duty. All atmospheric silhoutted, still and silent. Photograph taken during dawn or dusk but certainly either getting dark or growing light. in 1919..



What are you thinking of - silent Gun?
I think of the work that is nearly done.
I think of a France that was turned to Hell.
I think of the Gunnrs who served me well.
Up to my axles in slime and mud,
With my breech block smothered in brave men's blood,
Re-set and painted - tested and true,
I am ready to start on my work anew.

What do you see, you painted thing?
I see the throne of a fugitive King.
Freedom's troops on a country side,
Where once were the Castles of Crime and Pride.
A River, the boast of a race accursed,
Who tried their best to do their worst.
Proudly I look at my mates in line.
The real indesputable "Wacht am Rhein".

What do you hear, you great dumb beast?
I hear a rumour from West to East,
Of an Army to hold what we dearly bought,
To keep the position for which we fought.
The south wind whispers from far Mayence,
The river is held in the name of France.
And the ripples sing from the racing tide,
America stands at your right hand side.

Why do you laugh, you great grim Gun?
I laugh to think of the frolic and fun,
When back in old England around my Wheels,
Children will gambol with joyful squeals,
Lovers in couples will sit on my trail,
And my ears will be cheered with the old, old tale.
Be sure there'll be plenty of laughter and fun,
When the war is past and my work is done.


All very moving.
Susan.

[marina]

AP Herbert in humorous mood:

The Lost Leader".


The men are marching like the best;

The waggons wind across the lea;

At ten to two we have a rest,

We have a rest at ten to three;

I ride ahead upon my gee

And try to look serene and gay;

The whole battalion follows me

And I believe I've lost the way.

Full many a high-class thoroughfare

My erring map does not disclose,

While roads that are not really there

The same elaborately shows;

And whether this is one of those

It needs a clever man to say;

I am not clever, I suppose.

And I believe I've lost the way.


The soldiers sing about their beer;

The wretched road goes on and on;

There ought to be a turning here,

But if there was, the thing has gone.

Like some depressed automaton

I ask at each estaminet;

They say, "Tout droit" and I say "Bon".

But I believe I've lost the way.

I dare not tell the trustful men;

They think me wonderful and wise;

But where will be the legend when

They get a shock of such a size?

And what about our brave Allies?

They wanted us to fight today;

We were to be a big surprise -

And I believe I've lost the way.

[truthergw]

I had been meaning to have a go at Ted Hughes for a very long time. I finally got around to it and discovered that his father was a veteran of the Great War and he wrote several poems about that. Very different and worth a look if you get a chance.

[marina]

http://www.merseyworld.com/faith/html_file/warpoetry4.html

Link to Hughes's 'Six Young Men'

Marina

[marina]

And here are two from Robert Graves:

CORPORAL STARE
Back from the line one night in June,
I gave a dinner at Bethune—
Seven courses, the most gorgeous meal
Money could buy or batman steal.
Five hungry lads welcomed the fish
With shouts that nearly cracked the dish;
Asparagus came with tender tops,
Strawberries in cream, and mutton chops.
Said Jenkins, as my hand he shook,
"They'll put this in the history book."
We bawled Church anthems in choro
Of Bethlehem and Hermon snow,
With drinking songs, a jolly sound
To help the good red Pommard round.
Stories and laughter interspersed,
We drowned a long La Bassée thirst—
Trenches in June make throats damned dry.
Then through the window suddenly,
Badge, stripes and medals all complete,
We saw him swagger up the street,
Just like a live man—Corporal Stare!
Stare! Killed last May at Festubert.
Caught on patrol near the Boche wire,
Tom horribly by machine-gun fire!
He paused, saluted smartly, grinned,
Then passed away like a puff of wind,
Leaving us blank astonishment.
The song broke, up we started, leant
Out of the window—nothing there,
Not the least shadow of Corporal Stare,
Only a quiver of smoke that showed
A fag-end dropped on the silent road.

THE LAST POST
The bugler sent a call of high romance—
"Lights out! Lights out!" to the deserted square.
On the thin brazen notes he threw a prayer,
"God, if it's this for me next time in France ...
O spare the phantom bugle as I lie
Dead in the gas and smoke and roar of guns,
Dead in a row with the other broken ones
Lying so stiff and still under the sky,
Jolly young Fusiliers too good to die."

Marina

[Simon J]

Reginald Arkell (1882-1959), English journalist, playwright & lyricist.
All the Rumors 1916

I saw this on E-Bay a couple of days ago on a postcard for auction (280109955426) I thought it could apply today with modifications for society changes.

When the war will end!

Actual evidence I have none;
But my Aunt's Charwoman's Sister's son,
Heard a Policeman on his beat,
Say to a Housemaid in Downing Street,
That he has a Brother who has a Friend,
Who knows when the war is going to end!

I could not read the poet's name so those with classical bent please tell me

Kind Regards,
SMJ

[marina]

Reginald Arkell. Here's your man, Simon:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Arkell

Marina

[LenT]

W.N.Hodgson (1893-1916)
"Before Action"

By all the glories of the day
And the cool evening's benison,
By that last sunset touch that lay
Upon the hills where day was done,
By beauty lavisghly outpoured
And blessings carelessly received,
By all the days that I have lived
Make me a solider, Lord.
By all of man's hopes and fears,
And all the wonders poets sing,
The laughter of unclouded years,
And every sad and lovely thing;
By the romantic ages stored
With high endeavor that was his,
By all his mad catastrophes
Make me a man, O Lord.
I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of Thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
Must say goodbye to all of this;--
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord.

My understanding is that this was written the night before he went over the top on July 1st 1916 and was found in his personal effects after his death that day.


Len