I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years reading books and poetry by and about the WWI poets. I’ll start by saying that I’m not going to be extolling either the beauty or the virtue or Rupert Brooke or Siegfried Sassoon. Despite the way that women raved about their looks, I find neither particularly attractive physically and the more I read about them the more I dislike their personalities.
Instead, let me squee about these lads:
Ivor Gurney is one of the almost forgotten poets of WWI, in comparison to Brooke, Sassoon, Graves and Owen. He seems to have had some sort of mental disorder, not just the almost inevitable shell-shock, and died tragically young, leaving behind a legacy of such poems as “To His Love“.
is body that was so quick
Is not as you
Knew it, on Severn river
Under the blue
Driving our small boat through.
And then there’s my favourite, Wilfred Owen
I have on my computer cart a WWI Manchester’s cap badge, ourchased solely because Owen was with one of the Manchester regiments (the seller gave me a discount because I mentioned that). Complex, charming, a touch immature, shy, talented, Owen comes across wonderfully well – better, indeed, with everything I read about him. There’s something so gentle and wistful in that gaze, something to make me go weak at the knees.
He’s retained his place in the heart – and the English curriculum – of the nation, although I do wonder what some teachers would think if they knew he’d written about rent-boys as well as life in the trenches. I’d recommend that anyone who wants to understand WWI, and early twentieth century Engalnd, reads his work. I’ll go back to sighing…
The Macaronis 
May 12, 2011 at 8:04 pm
I blatantly need to read more poems.
May 12, 2011 at 8:32 pm
You do. I don’t greatly like the whole genre, but some of them are real peaches.
May 12, 2011 at 10:34 pm
I loved to read poetry since I was a little girl. I have written some my self many moons ago.
This here is a treasure of heartbreak. I am deeply touched, reading transports me to lands of destruction, almost hearing the battle, the agonizing cries of the wounded and the fear in the hearts of so many young man. And tombstone after tombstone seem to outnumber the living. Will mankind ever learn?
God, I am so pleased you sharing this with us Charlie, I probably would have never found it but now, I even listened to a very touching voice narrating some excerpts from the letters Ivor wrote. I don’t mind telling you a shed quite a few tears and my thoughts slid over to Janti and Orlando and what they had to endure. One of the poem talks about a young lad too frightened to dye and was executed by the British just as one of the deserters was in your book. I wished there would have been a more human way to deal with children who did not even had a chance of live yet.
Thank you Charlie, I will be scouting Amazon for more read material.
Love and hugs,
Torry
May 13, 2011 at 11:09 am
Torry
I’m a fan of good poetry, particularly guys like Auden and Betjeman, but reading about the WWI poets has introduced me to loads more great writers. I can’t write it, though, apart from limericks. (Someone else wrote the sonnets for All Lessons Learned.)
I’m so pleased you’ve enjoyed (if that’s the right word, given that it’s so moving) the links.
I find that the more I read about the era, the more I want to read. I’ve got a book about meeting between various poets and it’s given me a list of questions I want answered!
Have you come across Strange Meeting by Susan Hill? Great book. If you can’t get it in the US, let me know.
Lots of love
Charlie