The changing theme and tone of World War One poetry as war progressed

• The theme, and tone, of World War One poetry, tells us about the theme and tone of society’s perception of the war as it progressed.

We learn about society’s perception of the war through the poetry of:

The British Upper Class in favour

The British Upper Class officers who consider the war as pride and fantasy gone mad

The proud and dedicated soldier ready to “do his bit to defend England”

The soldier that hopes that his private hell and sacrifice will mean something

The soldier that hopes that someone else equally as brave will carry on his fight and not fail England in her time of need.

The soldier that decides that his sacrifice need not have happened and that he was “tricked” by Europe’s Kings and Emperors.

Mothers, sisters and lovers.

“…All this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilisation and our hopes, has been brought about because of set of official gentlemen, living in luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country’s pride.” Bertrand Russell (1914)

In his impassioned attack on the declaration of war in August 1914, the philosopher Bertrand Russell was something of a lone voice. At the time, Great Britain was riding a wave of martial and Imperial enthusiasm, and the people very much wanted conflict.

Do Now:1. What does the author mean by “civilisation” in this sense?

2. Who are the “set of official gentlemen”?

3. What does having “imagination” and “heart” both mean?

4. If the set of official gentlemen had these attributes, how might things have been different?

5. What do the words infinitesimal and rebuff mean?

6. What is an impassioned attack?

7. What is a “lone voice”?

8. What does the author mean when he says that Great Britain was riding a wave of martial and imperial enthusiasm. What is martial and imperial enthusiasm?

Germany had heavily remilitarised during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and began massing its army on the border with Belgium. It seemed clear that an invasion of Belgium was imminent.

In response to this, British Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, instructed his Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey, to issue an ultimatum: if Germany did not give Belgium an assurance of safety, then Britain would intervene on her side, and war would be declared.

The deadline for this assurance was 11pm on 4 August 1914: a warm Bank Holiday weekend, in a long and pleasant summer. No such assurance was given.

Crowds gathered in Trafalgar Square and outside Buckingham Palace to cheer the announcement of war. Most people believed that it would all be over by Christmas: that they were going to teach the Germans a swift lesson, and then get back to the business of running the great British Empire. They were wrong.

1. What does remilitarised, imminent and massing mean?

2. What is an ultimatum?

3. What is an assurance?

4. What does intervene mean?

5. What does the last paragraph tell us about the British view of their supremacy? Explain with evidence from the text.

In the early stages poetry played a considerable part in drumming up support for the conflict. Robert Bridges was one of the poets who encouraged young men to “stand up and meet the war because the Hun is at the gate”.

The Secret War Propaganda Bureau was formed and many poets wrote to support the war. For example, Laurence Binyon who wrote “For the Fallen”. Binyon did not go to war. He never came face to face with the realities of the rat and lice infested, water and mud-filled trenches. He never experienced the mixture of boredom (tedium), fear and futility: the sensation that what you were part of was a meaningless struggle begun by Europe’s leaders and supported by others who also didn’t realise the depth of the horror experienced by the soldiers on all sides of the conflict.

Binyon might not have expressed the war as a “game” to be “joined”, but he did “glorify” war. He gave death and self-sacrifice the level of royalty and the highest honour. Tears are alright because they are met by the glory of God.

Binyon also paints a vivid image of the soldiers being brave and “staunch” in the face of the enemy; even till their deaths. He paints them as being strong, alert and glowing with the certainty that their task was worthwhile. Binyon never saw them die in the mud, or cry for their mothers. Binyon never lived in fear for his life or his sanity.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

For the FallenWith proud thanksgiving, a mother for her

children,England mourns for her dead across the

sea.Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her

spiritFallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.There is music in the midst of desolationAnd a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle; they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

1. In what ways has Binyon given the soldiers religious or biblical heroic attributes? Explain with examples.

2. In what ways has Binyon given the struggle and hardship the highest honour? Explain with examples.

3. In what ways has Binyon shown that the soldiers were unfailingly strong and unfailingly good young people. Explain with examples.

4. What is it about the theme and tone of Binyon’s poem we hold onto today. When and Why?

Rupert Brooke was another poet that wrote about the war being a place of “heroic” sacrifice. He was ambivalent about the conflict to begin with, but joined up and threw himself into thoughts and dreams of achieving military “glory”. Like so many of his upper class, his generation and schooling, he looked at the war with pride and necessary sacrifice.

Brooke saw a little bit of conflict, but as he died in 1915 of blood poisoning on his ship in the Greek islands, his poetry never moved away from the fantasy of war being glory and sacrifice. He became known as a war hero when he died and his poems were used by propagandists to promote the conflict in England because they celebrated the idea of giving one’s life for one’s country.

Peace, by Rupert BrookeNow, God be thanked

Who has matched us with his hour,And caught our youth, and wakened us from

sleeping,With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened

power,To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,

Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,

And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,And all the little emptiness of love!

1. Who does Brooke thank for the opportunity that war brings? Include the quote.

2. What does he see himself and other young gentlemen like? Include the quote.

3. What does Brooke mean about into cleanness leaping? What is this cleanness?

4. What does he think of those who have not joined the war voluntarily? What attribute does he think they lack?

Brooke also considered that the sacrifice of war was a rebirth; a baptism or a chance for redemption, absolution or forgiveness of sins committed in this life-time. The war’s CONFLICT has given the opportunity for EMOTIONAL PEACE!!!!!!! I’d like to know what he did! Check the second half of “Peace” out and a line in “The Soldier”.

Oh! We, who have known shame,

We have found release there,

Where there’s no ill, no grief, but sleep in mending,

Naught broken save the body, lost but breath;

Nothing to shake the laughing heart’s long peace there

But only agony, and that has ending;

And the worst friend and enemy is but death.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,…

1. What is Brooke being released from?

2. Do people do this today? Do they use conflict around them, or business to take their minds of stuff that bugs them? Explain with an example.

3. The ultimate arrival at “peace” for Brooke appears to be death. What does Brooke call death?

4. According to Brooke, what is the soldier who sacrificed himself in WWI like, when he goes to heaven? Provide an example.

Common Form, by Rudyard Kipling

If any question why we died

Tell them, because our fathers lied.

A Dead Statesman (politician)

I could not dig; I dared not rob;

Therefore I lied to please the mob.

Now all my lies are proved untrue

And I must face the men I slew.

What tale shall serve me here among

Mine angry and defrauded young?

In the Dordogne, by John Peele Bishop

…And each day one died or another died: each week we

sent out thousands

That returned by hundred

Wounded or gassed. And those that died

We buried close to the old wall…

And because we had courage;

Because there was courage and youth ready to be wasted; because we

endured and were prepared for all the endurance; we thought something must

come of it:…

What did the soldiers have to say now?

Report on Experience, by Edmund Blunden

I have been young, and now am not too old;

And I have seen the righteous forsaken (innocent men, defrauded and

sacrificed)

His health, his honour and his quality taken.

This is not what we were formerly told.

I have seen a green country, useful to the race,

Knocked silly with guns and mines, its villages vanished,

Even the last rat and kestral banished…

Preparations for Victory

…Days or eternities like swelling waves

Surge on, and still we drudge in this dark maze…

1. What does the soldier think/see that war has done to other soldiers?

2. What does the soldier see has happened to Europe?

3. Blunden uses simile to compare what to growing ocean waves?

4. What is the dark maze – literally and metaphorically?

In contrast to this style of World War One poetry we have poets who reflect the realisation that the conflict is meaningless. That it was sending young men off to die for the pointless national pride of kings and emperors that lived in worlds disconnected from reality. They had the means to destroy another’s nation – but were not concerned about the individuals and their families that were carrying out their commands. Their countries were tearing each other apart – just because they could. They had the boats, the guns and the foot soldiers.

Lament, by F.S Flint.The young men of the world

Are condemned to death.They have been called up to die

For the crime of their fathers.

1. How does this piece compare to Rupert Brooke’s PEACE?:

Now, God be thankedWho has matched us with his hour,

And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,

With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,

To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,

Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,

Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,

And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,

And all the little emptiness of love!

Lament continued…The young men of the world,

The growing, the ripening fruit,Have been torn from their branches,

While the memory of the blossomIs sweet in women’s hearts;

They have been cast for a cruel purposeInto the mashing-press and furnace.

How does this compare to Binyon’s For the Fallen:

…Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.There is music in the midst of desolationAnd a glory that shines upon our tears…

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn.?

Lament continued…

The young men of the world Look into each other’s eyes,

And read there the same words:

Not yet! Not yet!...

How does this verse compare to:

…They went with songs to the battle; they were

young,Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds

uncounted;They fell with their faces to

the foe…?

The young men of the worldNo longer possess the road:The road possesses them.

They no longer inherit the earth;The earth inherits them.

They are no longer the masters of fire:Fire is their master;

They serve him, he destroys them.They no longer rule the waters”

The genius of the seasHas invented a new monster,

And they fly from its teeth.They no longer breathe freely:

The genius of the airHas contrived a new terror

That rends them into pieces.

The young men of the world Are encompassed with death

He is all about themIn a circle of fire and bayonets.

Weep, weep, o women,And old men break your hearts.

1. What does Flint have to say about the soldiers control over their futures?

2. What does he have to say about the advancement of man?

3. What is the “new monster of the seas”?

4. What two things make up the “genius of the air”?

How does the last verses compare with this piece of Binyon’s

For the FallenWith proud thanksgiving, a mother for

her children,England mourns for her dead across

the sea.Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of

her spiritFallen in the cause of the free…?

Valley of the Shadow, by John Galsworthy

God, I am travelling out to death’s sea,

I, who exulted in sunshine and laughter,

Dreamed not of dying – death is such waste of me!

How does this compare to Brooke’s PEACE

…Naught broken save the body, lost but breath;

Nothing to shake the laughing heart’s long peace there

But only agony, and that has ending;And the worst friend and enemy is but

death…?

Valley of the Shadow contin…

Grant me one prayer: Doom not the hereafter

Of mankind to war, as though I had not not –

I who, in battle, my comrade’s arm linking,

Shouting and sang – life in my pulses hot…

Let not my sinking

In dark be for naught, my death a vain thing!

God, let me know it the end of man’s fever!...

1. What does this soldier plea for?

Breakfast, by Wilfred Gibson

We ate out breakfast lying on our backs

Because the shells were screeching overhead.

I bet a rasher to a loaf of bread

That Hull United would be Halifax

when Jimmy Stainthorpe played full-back instead

Of Billy Bradford. Ginger raised his head

And cursed, and too the bet, and dropt back dead.

We ate our breakfast lying on our backs

Because the shells were stretching overhead.

Mark Anderson, Wilfred Gibson

On the low table by the bed

Where it was set aside last night,

Beyond the bandaged lifeless head,

It glitters in the morning light;

And as the hours of watching pass,

I cannot sleep, I cannot think,

but only gaze upon the glass

Of water that he could not drink.

1. What is the tone of “Mark Anderson”?

2. What is the tone of “Breakfast”?

The Target, by Ivor Gurney

I shot him, and it had to be

One of us! ‘Twas him or me.

“Couldn’t be helped” and none came blame

Me, for you would do the same.

My mother, she can’t sleep for fear

Of what might be a –happening here

To me. Perhaps it might be best

To die, and set her fears at rest….

All’s a tangle. Here’s my job.

A man might rave, or shout, or sob;

And God He takes no sort of heed.

This is a bloody mess indeed.

1. Who was the target?

2. Who could it have easily been?

3. What does the soldier think would be best to happen?

4. Does the soldier think that God cares about them? Explain with an example.

The Silent One, by Ivor Gurney

Who died on the wires, and hung there,

One of two –

Who for his hours of life had chattered through

Infinite lovely chatter of Bucks accent:

Yet faced unbroken wires; stepped over, and went

A noble fool, faithful to his stripes – and ended.

But I weak, hungry, and willing only for the chance

Of line – to fight in the line, lay down under unbroken

Wires, and saw the flashes and kept unshaken,

Till the politest voice – a finicking accent, said:

“Do you think you might crawl through, there:

There’s a hole.”

Darkness, shot at: I smiled, as politely replied –

“I’m afraid not, Sir.” There was no hole

No way to be seen.

Nothing but chance of death, after tearing of clothes

Kept flat, and watched the darkness,

Hearing bullets whizzing –

And thought of music – and swore…

The Deserter, by Winifred M. Letts

There was a man – don’t mind his name,

Whom Fear had dogged by night and day.

He could not face the German guns

And so he turned and ran away,

But who can judge him, you or I?

God makes a man of flesh and blood

Who yearns to live and not to die.

And this man when he feared to die

Was scared as any frightened child…

A man in abject hear of death;

But fear had gripped him, so had death;…

They shot him when the dawn was grey.

Blindfolded, when the dawn was grey,

He stood there in a place apart,

The shots rang out and down he fell.

An English bullet in his heart!

1. What does Letts tell us about deserters? Give three points, with explanations and examples from the text.

Suicide in the Trenches, by Siegfried Sassoon

I knew a simple soldier boyWho grinned at life in empty joy,

Slept soundly through 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 through his brain.No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eyeWho cheer when solder lads march by,Sneak home and pray you’ll never knowThe hell where youth and laughter go.

1. Sassoon was a British officer in the army. Name two emotions expressed by Sassoon in this poem. Provide examples of their existence by finding text from the poem to support them.

The Soldiers Come Home…

Survivors, by Siegfried Sassoon

No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strain

Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.

Of course they’re “longing to go out again” –

These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.

They’ll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed

Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died –

Their dreams that drip with murder; and they’ll be proud

Of glorious war that shatter’d all their pride…

Men who sent out to battle, grim and glad;

Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

1. What do the doctors expect will happen to the soldiers home on rehabilitation leave?

2. What does Sassoon believe about the Survivors?

3. Who are the “children”?

Does it Matter? By Siegfried Sassoon

Does it Matter? – losing your legs?

For people will always be kind,

And you need not show that you mind

When others come in after hunting

To gobble their muffins and eggs.

Does it matter? – losing your sight?

There’s such splendid work for the blind;

And people will always be kind,

As you sit on the terrace remembering

And turning your face to the light.

1. What is the tone of Sassoon’s poem? Explain why you think this and provide examples from the text.

Do they matter? – those dreams in the pit?You can drink and forget and be glad,And people won’t say that you’re mad;

For they know that you’ve fought for your country,

And no one will worry a bit.

A War Film, by Teresa Hooley

I saw,

And with a catch of the breath and the heart’s uplifting,

Sorrow and pride, the “week’s great draw” –

The Mons Retreat;

…As in a dream,

Still hearing the machine-guns rattle and shells scream,

I came out into the street.

When the day was done,

My little son

Wondered at bath-time why I kissed him so,

…How could he know

The sudden terror that assaulted me?...

The body I had borne

Nine months beneath my heart,

A part of me…

If, someday,

It should be taken away

To war. Tortured. Torn.

Slain

Rotting in No Man’s Land,

Out in the rain –

My little son…

Yet all those men had mothers, every one.

How should he know

Why I kissed and kissed and kissed him, crooning his name?

He thought that I was daft.

He thought it was a game,

And laughed,

And laughed.