First World War Poetry
Discussion
A nice cheerful thread for the centenary weekend of World War I, but it was a remarkable time for its poetry. So having read quite a lot over the last few days I thought it would be good to have a thread to post up favourites or poems that otherwise mean something to you that might otherwise be overlooked. Or just any old WW1 poetry, as even the cliched stuff is very powerful.
Here Dead We Lie by A.E. Housman seems a good place to start. I hadn't heard it until recently. Short but quite powerful.
Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
From which we sprung.
Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.
Here Dead We Lie by A.E. Housman seems a good place to start. I hadn't heard it until recently. Short but quite powerful.
Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
From which we sprung.
Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.
Obviously very poignant been the centenary Enf of World War I.
I'm now 46 - and don't remember much from school ..... Yet the Poems/Poets from World War 1 and A Kestrel for a Knave (Kes) I can still remember parts of them to this day. Siegfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen (off to go look them up and remind myself)
The saying "Lest we not forget" - is actually from a Rudyard Kipling Poem from late 1800's (nd is actually "Lest we forget" from Recessional)
I'm currently working oppopsite the Tower of London - and have been able to see the previous installation (Ceramic poppies in 2014) and the current one (10000 oil lanterns/flames lit from 5pm onwards) In the moat - definetely makes you stop and think - just hope the younger generation understand why, and keep up the tradition.
I'm now 46 - and don't remember much from school ..... Yet the Poems/Poets from World War 1 and A Kestrel for a Knave (Kes) I can still remember parts of them to this day. Siegfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen (off to go look them up and remind myself)
The saying "Lest we not forget" - is actually from a Rudyard Kipling Poem from late 1800's (nd is actually "Lest we forget" from Recessional)
I'm currently working oppopsite the Tower of London - and have been able to see the previous installation (Ceramic poppies in 2014) and the current one (10000 oil lanterns/flames lit from 5pm onwards) In the moat - definetely makes you stop and think - just hope the younger generation understand why, and keep up the tradition.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47380/in-fl...
The Remembrance Poppy was inspired by this poem.
The Remembrance Poppy was inspired by this poem.
seyre1972 said:
Obviously very poignant been the centenary Enf of World War I.
I'm now 46 - and don't remember much from school ..... Yet the Poems/Poets from World War 1 and A Kestrel for a Knave (Kes) I can still remember parts of them to this day. Siegfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen (off to go look them up and remind myself)
The saying "Lest we not forget" - is actually from a Rudyard Kipling Poem from late 1800's (nd is actually "Lest we forget" from Recessional)
I'm currently working oppopsite the Tower of London - and have been able to see the previous installation (Ceramic poppies in 2014) and the current one (10000 oil lanterns/flames lit from 5pm onwards) In the moat - definetely makes you stop and think - just hope the younger generation understand why, and keep up the tradition.
Similar to me. I must have forgotten countless hours of school but there was one brief spell when I was 12 or 13 we studied some of these poems and it really hit home.I'm now 46 - and don't remember much from school ..... Yet the Poems/Poets from World War 1 and A Kestrel for a Knave (Kes) I can still remember parts of them to this day. Siegfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen (off to go look them up and remind myself)
The saying "Lest we not forget" - is actually from a Rudyard Kipling Poem from late 1800's (nd is actually "Lest we forget" from Recessional)
I'm currently working oppopsite the Tower of London - and have been able to see the previous installation (Ceramic poppies in 2014) and the current one (10000 oil lanterns/flames lit from 5pm onwards) In the moat - definetely makes you stop and think - just hope the younger generation understand why, and keep up the tradition.
Men Who March Away
BY THOMAS HARDY
What of the faith and fire within us
Men who march away
Ere the barn-cocks say
Night is growing gray,
Leaving all that here can win us;
What of the faith and fire within us
Men who march away?
Is it a purblind prank, O think you,
Friend with the musing eye,
Who watch us stepping by
With doubt and dolorous sigh?
Can much pondering so hoodwink you!
Is it a purblind prank, O think you,
Friend with the musing eye?
Nay. We well see what we are doing,
Though some may not see—
Dalliers as they be—
England's need are we;
Her distress would leave us rueing:
Nay. We well see what we are doing,
Though some may not see!
In our heart of hearts believing
Victory crowns the just,
And that braggarts must
Surely bite the dust,
Press we to the field ungrieving,
In our heart of hearts believing
Victory crowns the just.
Hence the faith and fire within us
Men who march away
Ere the barn-cocks say
Night is growing gray,
Leaving all that here can win us;
Hence the faith and fire within us
Men who march away.
Here's one for you Eric. To give it relevance an old friend of ours was born in the exact same circumstances in WW1.
War Baby
He has not even seen you, he
Who gave you your mortality;
And you, so small, how can you guess
His courage or his loveliness?
Yet in my quiet mind I pray
He passed you on the darkling way -
His death, your birth, so much the same -
And holding you, breathed once your name.
- Pamela Holmes
War Baby
He has not even seen you, he
Who gave you your mortality;
And you, so small, how can you guess
His courage or his loveliness?
Yet in my quiet mind I pray
He passed you on the darkling way -
His death, your birth, so much the same -
And holding you, breathed once your name.
- Pamela Holmes
Do not despair... For Johnny head-in-air.
He sleeps as sound... As Johnny underground.
Fetch out no shroud... For Johnny in-the-cloud.
And keep your tears... For him in after years.
Better by far... For Johnny-the- bright-star.
To keep your head... And see his children fed.
Written by John Pudney for the 1945 film, The Way to the Stars.
He sleeps as sound... As Johnny underground.
Fetch out no shroud... For Johnny in-the-cloud.
And keep your tears... For him in after years.
Better by far... For Johnny-the- bright-star.
To keep your head... And see his children fed.
Written by John Pudney for the 1945 film, The Way to the Stars.
Roman Rhodes said:
Here's one for you Eric. To give it relevance an old friend of ours was born in the exact same circumstances in WW1.
War Baby
He has not even seen you, he
Who gave you your mortality;
And you, so small, how can you guess
His courage or his loveliness?
Yet in my quiet mind I pray
He passed you on the darkling way -
His death, your birth, so much the same -
And holding you, breathed once your name.
- Pamela Holmes
I watched a widow on the Remeberence Day programme this morning, she was pregnant with her second child when her Husband was taken.War Baby
He has not even seen you, he
Who gave you your mortality;
And you, so small, how can you guess
His courage or his loveliness?
Yet in my quiet mind I pray
He passed you on the darkling way -
His death, your birth, so much the same -
And holding you, breathed once your name.
- Pamela Holmes
Both her children are now teenagers.
Reading this poem just a while afterwards really moved me.
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy
Slept soundly thru the lonesome dark
And whistled early with the lark
In winter trenches, cowed and glum
With crumps and lice and lack of rum
He put a bullet thru his brain
And no one spoke of him again
You smug faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads pass by
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
Siegfried Sassoon.
Who grinned at life in empty joy
Slept soundly thru the lonesome dark
And whistled early with the lark
In winter trenches, cowed and glum
With crumps and lice and lack of rum
He put a bullet thru his brain
And no one spoke of him again
You smug faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads pass by
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
Siegfried Sassoon.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy
Slept soundly thru the lonesome dark
And whistled early with the lark
In winter trenches, cowed and glum
With crumps and lice and lack of rum
He put a bullet thru his brain
And no one spoke of him again
You smug faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads pass by
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
Siegfried Sassoon.
Oh that is good. Thanks.Who grinned at life in empty joy
Slept soundly thru the lonesome dark
And whistled early with the lark
In winter trenches, cowed and glum
With crumps and lice and lack of rum
He put a bullet thru his brain
And no one spoke of him again
You smug faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads pass by
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
Siegfried Sassoon.
I think I could even forgive him using "thru" as short hand in a trench with bullets flying overhead.
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