Some of these pieces are recognize as 'war poems'
others are not - but, in someway, they all arise out of a time of
armed conflict. These poems do not glorify war, rather they are the
observations and emotions of the people somehow caught up in the 'art
and consequences of warfare' - which isn't always in uniform, gun
in hand on the bullet filled muddy battlefield.
original photo:
HM War Office 1916
Multi-tinting by Bruce 2002
The first part of this small collection is from the
pens of those who served in their respect Forces during a time of
conflict. The second section of the collection is intended to show
thoughts provoked in the nonmilitary - those 'victims' caught up in
conflict, and those 'unattached' but who have observed from a distance
and thought on some aspect of soldiery or conflict.
The 'Warrior' Poets
Capt Keith Douglas 
Royal Armoured Corps, Wounded, El Alamein 1943,
Killed in Action, Normandy, 9 June 1944
Sgt E. Linmar 
Pilot, Royal Air Force Missing In Action 13.8.40
- the very next day!!
Wg Cmdr Dennis McHarrie
'
I suppose they'll say ...' [ also known as 'Luck'
]
38 Sqn, (Middle East) Royal Air Force, 1942 -
1945
Bombardier Terrance Alan 'Spike' Milligan
The
Soldiers At Lauro
56 Heavy Artillery, Royal Artillery 1939 - 1945,
North Africa and Italy. Shell-shocked - Dimiano, January 1944
Postwar, Spike went on to later
fame as a comic genius in 'the Goon Show'. Best known his silly verses,
Spike was also a serious poetry, plus author of children's books ,
novels, and humorous war memoirs [ inc: 'Monty, His Part In My
Victory', 'Adolf Hitler, My Part in His Downfall', '& 'Rommel?
Gunner Who?' ]. For all his humour, Spike suffered from clinical
depression, some of which related to his experience during the war
- such as the bombardment of Dimiano, plus the day at Lauro when he'd
helped bury the comrades he had seen killed early.
Lt Wilfred Owen MC 
Anthem
for Doomed Youth
Dulce
Et Decorum Est
the Artists' Rifles 1915 - 1916 ~ 5th Batt, Manchester
Regiment 1916 - 1918.
Wounded - Somme, March 1917 ( returned to front-line
April 1917 ) ; Medically boarded to Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh
with shellshock - June 1917 ( return to duty June 1918 ); Awarded
Military Cross ( for bravery at Amiens ) Sept 1918; Killed in Action
- Ors, 4 November 1918.
Capt Siegfried Sassoon MC
The
Dug-out
Dreamers
Base
Details
Everyone
Sang
"They"
Does
it Matter
A
Mystic as Soldier
Sussex Yeomanry, Aug '14 - Apr '15; Royal Welch
Fusiliers, May '15 - Mar '19
Awarded the Military Cross Apr 1916 ( for his actions
in getting his dead and wounded men back to the British trenches );
Recommended for a further award for bravery during Battle of the Somme,
July 1916 (not awarded, deemed inappropriate as the Allies failed
in their overall objective ); Wounded - Second Battle of the Scarpe
March 1917; Medically boarded to Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh-
July 1917 (official for Shellshock, in reality to save him from Court
Martial following the publication of his letter on the futility of
prolonging the war;) Passed fit for General Service & posted to
Regimental Depot, November 1917; Posted to Limerick, Ireland, January
1918; Posted to Palestine ( 25th Batt, Royal Welch Fusiliers ) February
1918; Posted France June 1918; Wounded - St. Floris, July 1918 ( evacuated
to England for the remainder of the war ).
Frank Thompson 
Polliciti
Meliora
[ Having Promised Better Things ]
Royal Artillery, 1940 - 44. Attached to GHQ Liaison
Regt as a linguist, 1942-44.
Frank parachuted in to Yugoslavia and was captured
with Bulgarian partisans in May 1944. Although in a British uniform,
he was tried and executed as a ‘rebel’ on 10 Jun 1944.
Matsuo Kinsaku
aka: Basho
Summer
Grass
Samurai 1656 - 1667
For me, this Japanese haiku just about sums it all
up - when conflict is over and the the dust has settled . . .
Leo Marks
Yours
Chief Cryptographer, Special Operations Executive
1942 - 1945
Not strictly a 'War Poem' - more a poem of war by
association, 'Yours' became the cypher identification poem for the
SOE agent Violette Szabo. Prior to the Normandy landing in June 1944
Violette was dispatched to France. Following a fire-fight with German
troops, she was captured, and was executed in Ravensbrück concentration
camp sometime in 1945. 'Yours' was originally written for a girl with
whom Marks was in love, and whose death in an air crash he was told
of on Christmas Eve 1943.
for Violette Szabo, Special Operations Executive 1942-45
Victims & Observers
Rudyard Kipling
Pre-Great War:
Tommy
Last
of the Light Brigade
During & Post Great War:
A
Dead Statesman
My
Boy Jack
The
Hyaenas
Gethsemane
Justice
En-Dor
Civil Servant (India), Author, Poet, Journalist.
As in 'Tommy', Kipling's pre WWI war poems depict
soldiers as ordinary men doing a very misunderstood job in the best
way they can. 'The Last of the Light Brigade' is not one of his better
known poems, and that is not surprising given what has to say about
the way England treats its 'Heroes'. In contrast to Tennyson's retelling
of heroism in the face of overwhelming odds [ The Charge of the Light
Brigade ] , Kipling reveals the real way Britain treats its 'war heroes'
- just as it deals with any consequence of war it does not like -
it sweeps them under the carpet. [ This poem was written 1891, and
I, as a 'War Disabled Pensioner' who has spent years being without
a home, would argue nothing has changed. ]
Kipling's son, John, went missing at the Battle of
Loos Sept, 1915. John had originally being turned down for a commission
on the grounds of poor eyesight, but Rudyard pull a few strings, and
in 1915 John was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 2 Batt.,
Irish Guards. He was still only 17 and underage for overseas service,
but Kipling gave his parental permission and John was posted to the
France. Shortly after the Battle of Loos, the Kipling's received a
telegram from the War office informing them that John had been wounded
and was missing in action. Driven by guilt and desperately hoping
that his had survived but been taken prisoner, Ruyard Kipling made
countless journeys to French hospitals, speaking to soldiers who might
have fought alongside their son or known of him. Eventually, Kipling
accepted that his son must indeed be dead.
Post conflict, the experience and sense of guilt changed
Kipling from being the poet of the Empire, to a poet of bitterness
and guilt. Unpaid, Rudyard undertook the task of compiling the 'History
of the Irish Guards' - a meticulous recording of every soldier’s
death. He also worked for the War Graves Commission, and spent his
final years searching for his missing son's last resting place. It
is Kipling's words which are found on the graves of the thousands
of unidentified servicemen of that war, 'A Soldier of the Great War
- Known Unto God.'
John Kipling's remains were identified in 1992, and
his body is now buried in St Mary's ADS cemetery. He was previously
commemorated on the Loos Memorial to the missing.
 for
Lt John Kipling - 2nd Batt Irish Guards 1915
Li-Po
Lament
of the Frontier Guard
Daoist Monk [ 8th century ], Poet
Alexandra 'Alix' Feodorovna 
Whispering
Mirrors
A
Prayer
Nursing Volunteer - Sisters of Mercy-Nursing Sisters,
Her Majesty's Military Palace Hospital, Tsarskoe Selo 1915 - 1917.
Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt; Tsarina of Russia
- Nov 1894 - March 1917; Prisoner of the Revolution , March 1917 -
July 1918; Executed by the Bolshevik Cheka - Ekaterinburg, believed
17 July 1918; Exhumed from hidden grave - Koptyaki Village, July 1991;
Formally buried as a Martyr of the Russian Orthodox Church - St Petersburg,
July 1998
To me, the contrast in the mood of these two pieces
demonstrates the change that may occur within any individual caught
up in conflict, or the consequences of conflict. 'Whispering Mirrors
' shows the defiant trust in 'side and right overcoming the wronging
enemy', but as events unfold, and one begins to seeks comfort, understanding,
and renewed strength, thoughts can become more personal . 'Whispering
Mirrors ' was found amid the papers of Dr Botkin (Imperial family's
physician) and believed to have been written whilst a she was a prisoner
at Tobolsk, 1917, though it would seem to refer to events during her
earlier house arrest at the Alexander Palace, Tsarskoe Selo. The 'Prayer'
was written at Tobolsk about six months later, and when the conditions
of imprisonment had very much taken a turn for the worst.
Labi Siffre
Authentic
Lies ( 1991 )
Poet, Author, Songwriter.
This poem is not a 'war poem' by somebody who 'was
there'. And yet, in someway; to somebody who watched the same scenes
in real time through " the night-scope lenses " in his hand
rather then on a TV screen later, it would seem Labi was there. He
was observing, thinking, drawing contrast, and deciding between the
myths and realities of conflict as presented to him.
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