In Flanders Fields

[bobabode]

[donquixote99]

The war poem I recently learned of, in the film "Testament of Youth:"

It's by Roland Leighton, who was killed in France a few weeks later.

Villanelle

Violets from Plug Street Wood,
Sweet, I send you oversea.
(It is strange they should be blue,
Blue, when his soaked blood was red,
For they grew around his head;
It is strange they should be blue.)

Violets from Plug Street Wood-
Think what they have meant to me-
Life and Hope and Love and You
(And you did not see them grow
Where his mangled body lay
Hiding horror from the day;
Sweetest it was better so.)

Violets from oversea,
To your dear, far, forgetting land
These I send in memory,
Knowing You will understand.

[Dondilion]

Flanders Fields

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanders_Fields

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by bobabode

There is not a Canadian schoolboy who did not know that by heart. Remembrance day (Nov 11) was taken quite seriously.

[Dondilion]

The poem I often associate with WW1 is Anthem for Doomed Youths by Wilfred Owen.

WW1 destroyed the flower of British youth.

The first two lines!!

What passing bells for those who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen2.html

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by Dondilion

The poem I often associate with WW1 is Anthem for Doomed Youths by Wilfred Owen.

WW1 destroyed the flower of British youth.

The first two lines!!

What passing bells for those who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen2.html

It also doomed the British aristocracy in the long run, the men who did make it home had acquired a whole new mindset.

[Dondilion]

Originally Posted by merrylander

It also doomed the British aristocracy in the long run, the men who did make it home had acquired a whole new mindset.

Many men from the upper and middle class were officers. Junior officers equipped with just revolvers were often required to lead assaults. Those officers paid a heavy price.

[Dondilion]

Also remembering Henry Moseley, a Brit who was important in adding to our understanding of the atom.

He died on the battle field during the disaster that was Gallipoli at the age of 27.

Moseley was mentioned in connection with possible award of the Nobel prize in Physics.

His death caused the British to changed their policy on who is allowed to be in combat.