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.
For the Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her
children,
England mourns for her dead across the
sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her
spirit
Fallen 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 desolation
And 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.
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.
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 Brooke
Now, 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.
In the Dordogne, by John
Peele Bishop
If any question why we died
…And each day one died or
another died: each week we
sent out thousands
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
That returned by hundred
A Dead Statesman (politician)
Wounded or gassed. And
those that died
Common Form, by Rudyard Kipling
I could not dig; I dared not rob;
We buried close to the old
wall…
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?
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 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!
Lament continued…The young men of the
world,
The growing, the ripening fruit,
Have been torn from their branches,
While the memory of the blossom
Is sweet in women’s hearts;
They have been cast for a cruel purpose
Into the mashing-press and furnace.
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 compare to Binyon’s
For the Fallen:
How does this verse
compare to:
…Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and
royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And 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…?
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow
old;
Age shall not weary them, not the years
condemn.?
The young men of the world
No 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 seas
Has invented a new monster,
And they fly from its teeth.
They no longer breathe freely:
The genius of the air
Has contrived a new terror
That rends them into pieces.
The young men of the world
Are encompassed with death
He is all about them
In 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 Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for
her children,
England mourns for her dead across
the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of
her spirit
Fallen 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!
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,
How does this compare to Brooke’s
PEACE
Shouting and sang – life in my
pulses hot…
…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…?
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
I cannot sleep, I cannot think,
We ate out breakfast lying on our backs
but only gaze upon the glass
Because the shells were screeching overhead.
Of water that he could not
drink.
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,
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,
Nothing but chance of death,
after tearing of clothes
One of two –
Kept flat, and watched the
darkness,
Who for his hours of life had chattered through
Hearing bullets whizzing –
Infinite lovely chatter of Bucks accent:
And thought of music – and
swore…
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.
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 boy
Who 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 eye
Who cheer when solder lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The 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.
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.
1. What is the tone of Sassoon’s
poem? Explain why you think this
and provide examples from the text.
A War Film, by Teresa Hooley
It should be taken away
I saw,
And with a catch of the breath and the heart’s uplifting,
To war. Tortured. Torn.
Sorrow and pride, the “week’s great draw” –
Slain
The Mons Retreat;
Rotting in No Man’s Land,
…As in a dream,
Out in the rain –
Still hearing the machine-guns rattle and shells scream,
My little son…
I came out into the street.
Yet all those men had mothers, every
one.
When the day was done,
My little son
Wondered at bath-time why I kissed him so,
How should he know
Why I kissed and kissed and kissed
him, crooning his name?
…How could he know
The sudden terror that assaulted me?...
He thought that I was daft.
The body I had borne
He thought it was a game,
Nine months beneath my heart,
And laughed,
A part of me…
And laughed.
If, someday,