‘A Private’ appeared under the pseudonym Edward Eastaway in An Annual of New Poetry 1917 (London: Constable & Co., 1917). ‘As the Team’s Head-Brass’, ‘Lights Out’ and ‘The Trumpet’ appeared in Poems by Edward Thomas (‘EdwardEastaway’) (London: Selwyn & Blount, 1917). ‘This is no case of petty Right or Wrong’ appeared in Last Poems (London: Selwyn & Blount, 1918).
W[alter] J[ames] Turner was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1889 and was educated at Scotch College, Adelaide. He came to London in 1906, and served in the Royal Garrison Artillery between 1916 and 1918. He was music critic of the New Statesman from 1916 until 1940 and the drama critic of the London Mercury between 1919 and 1923. He succeeded Siegfried Sassoon (q.v.) as literary editor of the Daily Herald in 1920, and from 1942 he was the literary editor of The Spectator. He died in 1946.
‘Men Fade Like Rocks’ and ‘The Navigators’ appeared in In Time Like Glass (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1921).
Francis Brett Young was born in Halesowen, Worcestershire, in 1884 and was educated at Epsom College and at Birmingham University. A doctor by profession, he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in East Africa, with the rank of major, but was eventually invalided home with fever and exhaustion; Marching on Tanga (London: W. Collins Sons & Co., 1917) is an account of his wartime experiences. After the war, he had a successful career as a novelist, dramatist and author of travel books, dying in 1954.
‘Song of the Dark Ages’ and ‘The Pavement’ appeared in Poems 1916–1918 (London: W. Collins Sons & Co., 1919).
Further Reading
ANTHOLOGIES OF
FIRST WORLD WAR POETRY
Wartime Anthologies
Andrews, Lieutenant C. E., ed., From the Front: Trench Poetry (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1918)
Clark, G. H., ed., A Treasury of War Poetry (London and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1917)
Collins, V. H., ed., Poems of War and Battle (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914)
A Crown of Amaranth: Being a Collection of Poems to the Memory of the Brave and Gallant Gentlemen Who Gave Their Lives for Great and Greater Britain (London: Erskine Macdonald, 1915)
Elliott, H. B., ed., Lest We Forget: A War Anthology (London: Jarrolds, 1915)
Halliday, W. J., ed., Pro Patria: A Book of Patriotic Verse (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1915)
Kyle, Galloway, ed., Soldier Poets: Songs of the Fighting Men (London: Erskine Macdonald, 1916)
——, ed., Soldier Poets: More Songs by the Fighting Men (London: Erskine Macdonald, 1917)
Leonard, R. M., ed., Patriotic Poems (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1914)
Lloyd, Bertram, ed., Poems Written during the Great War 1914–1918: An Anthology (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1918)
Macklin, Alys Eyne, ed., The Lyceum Book of War Verse (London: Erskine Macdonald, 1918)
Manning-Foster, A. E., ed., Lord God of Battles: A War Anthology (London: Cope & Fenwick, 1914)
Osborn, E. B., ed., The Muse in Arms: A Collection of War Poems, for the Most Part Written in the Field of Action, by Seamen, Soldiers and Flying Men Who Are Serving, or Have Served in the Great War (London: John Murray, 1917)
Poems of the Great War (London, Chatto & Windus, 1914)
Songs and Sonnets for England in Wartime: Being a Collection of Lyrics by Various Authors Inspired by the Great War (London: John Lane, 1914)
Tulloch, David, ed., Songs and Poems of the Great World War (London: Davis Press, 1915)
Later Anthologies of
First World War Poetry
Black, E. L., ed., 1914–18 in Poetry (London: University of London Press, 1970)
Brereton, Frederick, ed., An Anthology of War Poems (London: Collins, 1930)
Cross, Tim, ed., The Lost Voices of World War One (London: Bloomsbury, 1988)
Featherstone, Simon, ed., War Poetry: An Introductory Reader (London: Routledge, 1995)
Gardner, Brian, ed., Up the Line to Death: The War Poets 1914–1918 (London: Methuen, 1964)
Hibberd, Dominic, and Onions, John, eds., Poetry of the Great War: An Anthology (London: Macmillan, 1986)
Hussey, Maurice, ed., Poetry of the First World War (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1967)
Jaquet, E. R., ed., These Were the Men: Poems of the War, 1914–1918 (London: Marshall Bros., 1919)
Lloyd, Bertram, ed., The Paths of Glory: A Collection of Poems Written during the War 1914–1919 (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1919)
Motion, Andrew, ed., First World War Poems (London: Faber & Faber, 2003)
Nichols, Robert, ed., An Anthology of War Poetry 1914–1918 (London: Nicholson & Watson, 1943)
Parsons, I. M., ed., Men Who March Away: Poems of The First World War (London: Chatto & Windus, 1965)
Reilly, Catherine, ed., Scars upon My Heart: Women’s Poetry of the First World War (London: Virago, 1981)
Roberts, David, ed., Minds at War: Essential Poetry of the First World War in Context (Burgess Hill: Saxon Books, 1998)
Silkin, Jon, ed., The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry (Harmondsworth: Allen Lane and Penguin Books, 1979)
Stephen, Martin, ed., Never Such Innocence: A New Anthology of Great War Verse (London: Buchan & Enright, 1988)
Taylor, Martin, ed., Lads: Love Poetry of the Trenches (London: Constable, 1989)
Trotter, Jacqueline, ed., Valour and Vision (London: Hopkinson, 1920)
CRITICAL STUDIES OF FIRST WORLD WAR POETRY
Bergonzi, Bernard, Heroes’ Twilight: A Study of the Literature of the Great War (Manchester: Carcanet, 1997)
Buitenhuis, Peter, The Great War of Words: Literature as Propaganda 1914–18 and After (London: Batsford, 1989)
Caesar, Adrian, Taking It Like a Man: Suffering, Sexuality and the War Poets (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993)
Graham, Desmond, The Truth of War: Owen, Rosenberg and Blunden (Manchester: Carcanet, 1984)
Hibberd, Dominic, ed., Poetry of the First World War: A Casebook (London: Macmillan, 1981)
Johnston, John H., English Poetry of the First World War: A Study in the Evolution of Lyric and Narrative Form (London: Oxford University Press, 1964)
Khan, Nosheen, Women’s Poetry of the First World War (Brighton: Harvester, 1988)
Lyon, Philippa, Twentieth-Century War Poetry (London: Pal-grove Macmillan, 2005)
Marsland, Elizabeth A., The Nation’s Cause: French, English and German Poetry of the First World War (London: Routledge, 1991)
Parfitt, George, English Poetry of the First World War: Contexts and Themes (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990)
Reilly, Catherine, English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography (London: George Prior, 1978)
Roucoux, Michel, ed., English Literature of the Great War Revisited: Proceedings of a Symposium at the University of Picardy (Amiens: Presses de L’UER Clerc Université, 1989)
Rutherford, Andrew, The Literature of War: Five Studies in Heroic Virtue (London: Macmillan, 1978)
Silkin, Jon, Out of Battle: The Poetry of the Great War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972)
Spear, Hilda D., Remembering, We Forget: A Background Study to the Poetry of the First World War (London: Davis-Poynter, 1979)
THE CULTURAL IMPACT OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Bond, Brian, The Unquiet Western Front: Britain’s Role in Literature and History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
Ecksteins, Modris, Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age (London: Bantam Press, 1989)
Fussell, Paul, The Great War and Modern Memory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975)
Hynes, Samuel, A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture (London: Bodley Head, 1990)
Stephen, Martin, The Price of Pity: Poetry, History and Myth in the Great War (London: Leo Cooper, 1996)
Todman, Dan, The Great War: Myth and Memory (London: Hambledon and London, 2005)
Poem Acknowledgements
Richard Aldington: All poems © The Estate of Richard Aldington.
/> Martin Armstrong: ‘Before the Battle’ (1921) is reproduced from Collected Poems by Martin Armstrong (© Estate of Martin Armstrong 1931) by permission of PFD (www.pfd.co.uk) on behalf of the estate of Martin Armstrong.
Herbert Asquith: ‘The Volunteer’ included by permission of Macmillan UK.
Maurice Baring: ‘August, 1918’ reproduced by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd on behalf of the Trustees of the Maurice Baring Will Trust.
Laurence Binyon: Both poems appear by permission of The Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of Laurence Binyon.
Edmund Blunden: ‘Festubert: The Old German Line’ (1916), ‘The Midnight Skaters’ (1925), ‘At Senlis Once’ (1928), ‘Illusions’ (1928), ‘Preparations for Victory’ (1928), ‘Vlamertinghe: Passing the Chateau’ (1928), ‘Report on Experience’ (1929) from Poems of Many Years by Edmund Blunden (© Estate of Mrs Claire Blunden 1957) and ‘Ancre Sunshine’ (© Estate of Mrs Claire Blunden 1968) from Garland magazine in July 1968 are reproduced by permission of PFD (www.pfd.co.uk) on behalf of the Estate of Mrs Claire Blunden.
Vera Brittain: ‘The Superfluous Woman’, ‘Hospital Sanctuary’ and ‘The War Generation: Ave’ by Vera Brittain from Poems of the War and After (1934) are included by permission of Mark Bostridge and Rebecca Williams, her literary executors.
May Wedderburn Cannan: Both poems included by kind permission of James Slater.
G. K. Chesterton: ‘Elegy in a Country Churchyard’ reproduced by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd on behalf of the Royal Literary Fund.
Margaret Postgate Cole: ‘The Veteran’ is included by permission of David Higham Associates on behalf of the author.
Nancy Cunard: ‘Zeppelins’ appears by permission of the Heirs of Nancy Cunard.
Walter de la Mare: ‘The Marionettes’ reprinted by permission of The Literary Trustees of Walter de la Mare and The Society of Authors as their Representative.
Eleanor Farjeon: ‘Easter Monday’ and ‘Now that you too must shortly go the way’ from Book of Days published by Oxford University Press. Used by permission of David Higham Associates on behalf of the author.
Gilbert Frankau: All poems reproduced by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd on behalf of Timothy d’Arch Smith.
Robert Frost: ‘Not To Keep’ by Robert Frost from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem and published by Jonathan Cape. Used by permission of the Estate of Robert Frost and The Random House Group Ltd.
Wilfrid Gibson: All poems included by permission of Macmillan UK.
Robert Graves: All poems appear by permission of Carcanet Press Ltd.
Teresa Hooley: ‘A War Film’ included by kind permission of the National Federation of Retirement Pensions Association.
A. E. Housman: Both poems appear by permission of The Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of A. E. Housman.
Rudyard Kipling: All poems reproduced by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd on behalf of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty.
Rose Macaulay: ‘Picnic’ reprinted by permission of PFD (www.pfd.co.uk) on behalf of the estate of Rose Macaulay © Estate of Rose Macaulay (as printed in the original volume).
John Masefield: ‘August, 1914’ reprinted by permission of The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of John Masefield.
Sir Henry Newbolt: ‘The War Films’ appears by kind permission of Peter Newbolt.
Robert Nichols: Both poems are included by permission of Anne Charlton.
Jessie Pope: ‘War Girls’ from Simple Rhymes for Stirring Times © Octopus Publishing Ltd 1916.
Edgell Rickword: All poems appear by permission of Carcanet Press Ltd.
Siegfried Sassoon: All poems © Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of George Sassoon.
‘Ancient History’, ‘Aftermath’, ‘Picture-show’, ‘On Passing the New Merin Gate’, ‘Memorial Tablet’, ‘Everyone Song’, ‘The Meath-Bed’, ‘Repression of War Experience’, ‘They’, ‘Blighters’, ‘Sick Leave’, ‘Counter Attack’, ‘Banishment’, ‘The Redeemer’, ‘In Barracks’, ‘Kiss’, from Collected Poems of Siegfried Sassoon by Siegfried Sassoon, copyright 1918, 1920 by E. A. Dutton. Copyright 1936, 1946, 1947, 1948 by Siegfried Sassoon, used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Edward Shanks: ‘Armistice Day, 1921’ included by permission of Macmillan UK.
May Sinclair: ‘Field Ambulance in Retreat’ is reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London, on behalf of the Estate of May Sinclair © May Sinclair 1914.
Edith Sitwell: ‘The Dancers’ is included by permission of David Higham Associates on behalf of the author.
Osbert Sitwell: All poems appear by permission of David Higham Associates on behalf of the author.
Francis Brett Young: Both poems are reproduced by permission of David Higham Associates on behalf of the author.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. The publishers would be interested to hear from any copyright holders not here acknowledged.
Index of Titles and First Lines
A league and a league from the trenches – from the traversed maze of the lines, 120
A leaping wind from England, 139
A minx in khaki struts the limelit boards: 182
A soldier passed me in the freshly fallen snow, 275
A straight flagged road, laid on the rough earth, 143
Adam, a brown old vulture in the rain, 271
Admonition: To Betsey, The 184
After so much battering of fire and steel 152
After the dread tales and red yarns of the Line 46
After the fallen sun the wind was sad 61
After War 66
Aftermath 267
Air-Raid 185
‘All the hills and vales along’ 33
All the hills and vales along 33
An ancient saga tells us how 73
Ancient History 271
Ancre Sunshine 277
‘And all her silken flanks with garlands drest’ – 72
And have we done with War at last? 230
And still they come and go: and this is all I know – 258
And still we stood and stared far down 76
Anthem for Doomed Youth 131
Apologia pro Poemate Meo 81
‘Après la guerre finie’ 225
Après la guerre finie, 225
Are you going? To-night we must hear all your laughter; 40
Armistice Day, 1921 241
Arms and the Boy 32
Around me, when I wake or sleep, 92
As I went up by Ovillers 112
As the Team’s Head-Brass 200
As the team’s head-brass flashed out on the turn 200
‘At least it wasn’t your fault’ I hear them console 170
At Senlis Once 69
August, 1914 8
August, 1918 75
Back to Rest
139
Ballad of the Three Spectres 112
Banishment 79
Beau Ideal, The 212
Before Action 99
Before the Battle 88
Before the Charge 126
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 141
‘Blighters’ 181
Blighty 168
Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead! 156
Bombardment(Richard Aldington) 124
Bombardment(D. H. Lawrence) 122
‘Bombed last night’ 49
Bombed last night, and bombed the night before. 49
Break of Day in the Trenches 48
Breakfast 50
Butchers and Tombs 152
By all the glories of the day, 99
Call, The
21
Canadians 78
Carrion(Youth in Arms IV: Carrion) 149
Cenotaph, The 237
Channel Firing 2
Child’s Nightmare, A 216
Colonel Cold s
trode up the Line 53
Comrades of risk and rigour long ago 161
Conscript, The 27
Convalescence 210
Counter-Attack 135
Crippled for life at seventeen, 207
Crucifix Corner 70
Dancers, The
193
Darkness: the rain sluiced down; the mire was deep; 62
Day’s March, The 116
Dead, The(1914: The Dead) 156
Dead, The(1914: The Dead) 157
Dead and Buried 232
Dead Boche, A 150
Dead Cow Farm 73
Dead Man’s Dump 146
Dear, let me thank you for this: 173
Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest 29
Death-Bed, The 220
Deserter, The 163
Despair and doubt in the blood: 171
Dilemma, The 19
Disabled 252
Down the boulevards the crowds went by, 228
Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way 44
Downwards slopes the wild red sun. 118
Dulce et Decorum est 141
Easter Monday
165
‘Education’ 187
Elegy in a Country Churchyard 245
Entrance and exit wounds are silvered clean, 263
Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries 246
Epitaphs: A Son 194
Epitaphs: Common Form 245
Epitaphs: The Coward 162
Eve of Assault: Infantry Going Down to Trenches 118
Eve of War, The 4
Everyone Sang 226
Everyone suddenly burst out singing; 226
Exposure 55
Face, The
129
Familiar, year by year, to the creaking wain 74
Farmer, 1917, The 202
Festubert, 1916 259
Field Ambulance in Retreat 143
First Time In 46
‘For All We Have and Are’ 13
For all we have and are, 13
For the Fallen 235
Four days the earth was rent and torn 124
Fragment 45
From out the dragging vastness of the sea, 210
Futility 54
The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry Page 26