The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry

by Various Contributors

  ho, for the Red West: Sail off into the sunset.

  ‘Fag!’: A fag is a cheap cigarette, or a younger boy who acts as a servant to a more senior boy in British public schools.

  sailor suit: Traditional dress for young boys in Victorian times.

  Tipperary: ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’, by Jack Judge and Harry Williams, was a popular soldiers’ song.

  Hymn of Hate: An anti-British song composed by Ernst Lissauer, very popular in Germany throughout the war, whose aggressive message is best summed up by its closing lines: ‘We have one foe, and one foe alone – England.’

  The Face

  wraith: The phantom or spectre of someone, which usually appears as a warning that that person’s death is imminent or has just occurred.

  Gethsemane

  Gethsemane: The place where Jesus and his disciples spent the night before his crucifixion: ‘Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder’ (Matthew 26:36).

  ship: Put on.

  I prayed my cup might pass: See ‘And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt’ (Matthew 26:39). Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane to be spared his coming ordeal (‘this cup’), while the disciples he took with him fell asleep, allowing him to be captured.

  Anthem for Doomed Youth

  passing-bells: A passing bell is a bell rung immediately after a death to indicate the dead person’s passing.

  orisons: Prayers.

  pall: A cloth used to cover a coffin or tomb.

  drawing-down of blinds: Blinds and curtains were traditionally drawn when a funeral cortège passed a house or when there had been a death in the household.

  Spring Offensive

  begird: Prepare and strengthen.

  drave: Drove.

  Youth in Arms III: Retreat

  the old song: The songs which punctuate this poem appear to be Monro’s own invention.

  Aftermath

  Back to Rest

  lees: Dregs at the bottom of a bottle or glass.

  Dulce et Decorum est

  Dulce et Decorum est: This Latin quote, given in full at the end of the poem, is from Horace (65–8 BC), Odes III.ii.13. Owen’s translation of it, given in a letter to his mother of 16 October 1917, is ‘It is sweet and meet to die for one’s country.’

  clumsy helmets: Gas masks, probably of the Phenate-Hexamine Goggle Helmet variety, which consisted of a felt hood with perspex eyepieces.

  lime: Either quicklime, a white caustic substance obtained from heating limestone, or birdlime, which is a sticky substance spread on twigs to trap small birds.

  cud: Partially digested food, brought back into the mouth from the stomach for further chewing.

  Field Ambulance in Retreat

  Via Dolorosa, Via Sacra: Latin for ‘Dolorous Way, Sacred Way’, the name traditionally given to the road along which Christ carried the cross. Via Dolorosa is also the name given to a series of pictures or tableaux representing scenes in the Passion of Christ usually ranged at intervals around the walls of a church, although sometimes they can be found in the open air, especially on roads leading to a church or shrine.

  league: An archaic measure of distance of approximately five kilometres.

  standards: Regimental banners.

  Dead Man’s Dump

  crowns of thorns: A crown of thorns, a mock symbol of royalty, was forced upon Jesus before his crucifixion, according to Matthew 27:29, Mark 15:17 and John 19:2.

  God-ancestralled essences: Life.

  pyre: A heap of combustible material used for burning corpses.

  ichor: The ethereal fluid supposed to flow like blood in the veins of the gods.

  Youth in Arms IV: Carrion

  Carrion: Rotten meat.

  Soliloquy II

  carrion: Rotten meat.

  Goya: Francisco José Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828), the Spanish artist whose paintings, drawings and engravings reflected contemporary historical upheavals. His series ‘The Disasters of War’ (1810–11) was one of the earliest graphic depictions of war.

  Angelo: Michelangelo (1475–1564), the Italian Renaissance artist famous for numerous paintings, sculptures and architectural projects, among which were the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the statue David.

  Butchers and Tombs

  Cotswold stone: A distinctive honey-coloured limestone.

  the Gloucesters: Soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment, with which Gurney served.

  A Private

  bedmen: A variant of ‘beadsmen’, men who pray for the salvation of others.

  The Volunteer

  This poem was actually written before the war and was sent in 1913 to The Spectator, where it was kept on file. The war made it suddenly topical, so it appeared in the issue of 8 August 1914.

  oriflamme: The sacred banner of St Denis, received by early French kings from the abbot of St Denis before they set off to go to war. Later it came to mean anything – material or ideal – serving as a rallying point in a struggle.

  Agincourt: Henry V (1387–1422) invaded France on 13 August 1415 and went on to defeat the French at Agincourt on 25 October.

  In Flanders Fields

  poppies: The red poppy (Papaver rhoeas) flourishes in disturbed ground and was a ubiquitous sight on the Western Front. The practice of selling artificial poppies to raise money for wounded ex-servicemen immediately after the war resulted in it becoming an internationally recognized symbol of remembrance.

  Strange Meeting

  Titanic wars: In Greek mythology, the Titanomachia was the ten-year war waged by Zeus and the Olympian gods against his father, Cronos, and the Titans, who were demi-gods capable of enormous power and strength.

  groined: Scooped out.

  flues: Ventilation shafts.

  citadels: Castles or fortresses.

  parried: To parry is to block a sword or bayonet thrust with another weapon.

  Prisoners

  meed: A much deserved reward.

  4 BLIGHTY

  Going Back

  ‘I want to go home’

  There is some uncertainty about the tune of this song. Ivor Gurney gives a transcription in a letter of 22 June 1916 with the comment: ‘a very popular song about here. Not a brave song, but brave men sing it.’

  If We Return

  Rondeau: A medieval French verse form consisting of thirteen octosyllabic lines grouped into stanzas of five, three and five lines. The rondeau uses only two rhymes, and the first word or phrase of the first line recurs twice as a refrain after the second and third stanzas.

  Home Service

  top-hole: A slang term for ‘excellent’.

  Sick Leave

  watches: Fixed periods of duty, usually lasting four hours.

  Girl to Soldier on Leave

  Titan: In Greek mythology, the Titans were pre-Olympian gods or demi-gods, the children of Uranus and capable of enormous power and strength.

  the son of Zeus: Zeus had many sons, but this is probably a reference to Hercules, who was famed for his strength and fighting prowess.

  Prometheus: In Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire from the gods for the benefit of mankind and was punished by being chained to a rock where an eagle tore daily at his liver, the liver healing up again every night.

  Babel-cities: According to the Bible, the Tower of Babel was built by mankind to reach heaven. God was angered by this arrogance, and divided the people by scattering them over the face of the earth and giving them different languages. ‘Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth’ (Genesis 11:9).

  gyves: Fetters or shackles.

  Circe’s swine: In Book 10 of Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus’ men are turned into pigs by the s
orceress Circe while sleeping on the island of Aeaea.

  repine: Feel discontent.

  The Pavement

  drabs: Prostitutes.

  Leicester Square: A large square in the centre of London, famous for its theatres and a haunt of pleasure-seekers.

  hanger: A wood on the side of a steep hill or bank.

  The Other War

  ‘I wore a tunic’

  Sung to the tune of the popular American wartime ballad ‘I Wore a Tulip’, by Jack Mahoney and Percy Wenrich.

  ‘Blighters’

  ‘Blighters’: The title is a pun on the soldiers’ term for home – Blighty – and the slang term for a contemptuous or irritating person.

  the House: The theatre.

  rag-time: A popular form of music-hall entertainment, of African-American origin.

  ‘Home, Sweet Home’: A song with words by John Howard Payne and music by Henry Rowley Bishop, first heard in London in Bishop’s opera Clari, the Maid of Milan (1823).

  Ragtime (Wilfrid Gibson)

  Ragtime: A popular form of music-hall entertainment, of African-American origin.

  limelit: Before the introduction of electricity the best way to produce intense white light was by heating a piece of lime in an oxy-hydrogen flame. Such ‘limelights’ were widely used in theatres.

  Strand: A busy thoroughfare in central London.

  Air-Raid

  brake: A thicket or clump of bushes.

  Zeppelins

  Zeppelins: Named after their inventor, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838–1917), Zeppelins were large, rigid-framed steerable airships which were used for bombing raids on Britain for much of the war. The first raid took place on Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in Norfolk on 19 January 1915, while the first raid on London took place on 31 May 1915 and killed twenty-eight people, injuring another sixty.

  serried: Standing close together.

  surplice: A religious gown.

  ‘Education’

  quick: Alive. See ‘Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead’ (1 Peter 4:5).

  prate: Talk or chatter idly.

  Krupps: A well-known German family of armament manufacturers, whose name was frequently used to refer to their products.

  Socks

  20 plain…decrease: The knitting pattern described in italics in the poem is not actually possible. Knitting socks and other clothing was seen as a patriotic gesture during the war, although many soldiers’ memoirs complain of the poor quality of the clothing received.

  A War Film

  Cinema footage of the Mons Retreat does not exist. Official films do make reference to Mons retrospectively, and there was a feature film released in 1922, Mons (Gaumont British Instructional), which was dramatized but used veterans as extras and real army uniforms and equipment.

  Nine moons: Nine months.

  The War Films

  God on earth: Jesus, the son of God.

  seven sins: The seven deadly sins are Anger, Covetousness, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Pride and Sloth.

  sorrows seven: The seven sorrows of Mary, Christ’s mother.

  wayworn: Worn or wearied by travel.

  The Dancers

  carrion-fly: Several species of fly are able to feed on rotten flesh (carrion), including the bluebottle and the greenbottle.

  ‘I looked up from my writing’

  inditing: Putting things into literary form.

  tattle: Rapid, careless talk.

  Picnic

  hurt-berries: Another name for bilberries, which flourish best on high ground and grow in large amounts on the Surrey hills.

  Hurt Wood: A wood located in Surrey, between Guildford and Dorking (like Hurt Hill).

  downs: A series of gently rolling hills.

  As the Team’s Head-Brass

  Team: A set of animals harnessed together.

  Head-Brass: Decorative polished brass plates placed on a horse’s girdle.

  fallow: A ploughed area of farmland left unsown for a period of time.

  charlock: Wild mustard.

  share: The blade of a plough.

  The Farmer, 1917

  cinctures: Girdles, or things which encircle or encompass.

  Lucky Blighters

  ‘They’

  siphilitic: More usually spelt ‘syphilitic’. An estimated 32 out of every 1,000 soldiers had syphilis by 1917. Social taboo meant that it was a disabling, though infrequently discussed, disease on the Western Front and in Britain.

  Portrait of a Coward

  Gloucesters: Soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment, with which Gurney served.

  In A Soldiers’ Hospital I: Pluck

  dresser: Someone who dressed wounds, usually a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse.

  clothes: Bedclothes.

  woodbine: A cheap brand of untipped cigarette.

  In A Soldiers’ Hospital II: Gramophone Tunes

  ‘Where did you get that girl?’: A 1913 music-hall song written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Puck.

  Hospital Sanctuary

  chaff: Loose husks of corn left behind after harvesting.

  Convalescence

  cameo: A small piece of relief-carving in stone, cut in such a way as to create a light-coloured image on a darker background.

  lazuli: Lapis lazuli – a blue semi-precious stone.

  poppies: The red poppy (Papaver rhoeas) flourishes in disturbed ground and was a ubiquitous sight on the Western Front. The practice of selling artificial poppies to raise money for wounded ex-servicemen immediately after the war resulted in it becoming an internationally recognized symbol of remembrance.

  Smile, Smile, Smile

  Smile, Smile, Smile: An allusion to George and Felix Powell’s ‘Pack Up Your Troubles’, a popular song much favoured by soldiers during the First World War, which begins, ‘Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag, | And smile, smile, smile.’

  Yesterday’s Mail: A leading article in the Daily Mail for 19 September 1918 referred to society’s need to provide decent and comfortable homes for soldiers returning from the war.

  Vast Booty: Piratical or seafaring slang for a large amount of treasure.

  The Beau Ideal

  Beau Ideal: Originally the French for ‘ideal beauty’, a beau idéal is the perfect embodiment of a principle or quality.

  Belvidere Apollos: The Apollo Belvedere, a Roman copy of a fourth-century-bc Greek statue, which has been displayed in the Pio-Clementine Museum in the Vatican since 1503 and is a byword for male beauty.

  maggot: A whimsical fancy.

  tittle: A tiny amount.

  cicatrices: The scars or impressions left by healed wounds.

  who troth with Rose would plight: Who would wish to marry Rose.

  dight: Clad.

  A Child’s Nightmare

  Morphia: Morphine, a narcotic extracted from opium, is used as a painkiller and a sedative.

  Mental Cases

  purgatorial: Causing mental anguish.

  fretted sockets: Strained eyes.

  sloughs: A slough is both a swamp and also the layer of dead tissue formed on the surface of a wound.

  Rucked: Creased or wrinkled.

  rope-knouts: The knots on the end of a cat-o’-nine-tails, a type of flail used up until the mid nineteenth century to punish sailors.

  smote: Hit.

  The Death-Bed

  Aqueous: Watery.

  opiate: A drug from the opium family, known for soporific and painkilling qualities. Opiates are highly addictive and, in this sense, are a drug which relieves someone of their senses.

  wraiths: Things which appear suggestive of a ghost.

  5 PEACE

  Everyone Sang

  ‘When this bloody war is over’

  Sung to the tune of the hymn ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’, by Joseph M. Scriven and Charles C. Converse.

  civvy: Civilian.

  flue: The chimney of a stove.

  Preparations for Victory


  hags: Dialect for ‘torments’ or ‘terrifies’.

  jags: Sharp fragments.

  Caliban: The misshapen son of the witch Sycorax in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611).

  ‘Après la guerre finie’

  Sung to the tune of ‘Sous les Ponts de Paris’, by Jean Rodor and Vincent Scotto.

  Après la guerre finie: French for ‘After the war has finished’.

  Soldat anglais parti: ‘The English soldier left’, though it can also be read as a pun: ‘The English soldier celebrated.’

  Mam’selle Fransay boko pleuray: More properly, ‘Mademoiselle française beaucoup pleurais’ or ‘The young Frenchwoman cried a lot.’

  It Is Near Toussaints

  Toussaints: All Saints’ Day, 1 November – the feast-day in honour of all saints.

  Hilaire Belloc: The essayist, poet and travel writer (1870–1953).

  the night of the dead: 2 November – the feast-day for the commemoration of the souls of the dead.

  Michael, Nicholas, Maries: Ancient churches in Gloucester.

  the old City: Gloucester.

  no bon: British soldiers’ French for ‘no good’, this phrase was widely used on the Western Front to mean not only ‘bad’, but also ‘broken’ or ‘destroyed’.

  Report on Experience

  Seraphina: Blunden may have in mind St Seraphina of San Gimingnano (d. 1253), known for her self-denial and acts of penance as a young girl, or the Blessed Seraphina Sforza of Urbino (1434–78), whose life was one of incessant prayer, especially for the conversion of her wicked husband. However, seraphina are also female members of the highest order of angels.

  Eden: ‘And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed’ (Genesis 2:8).

  lyric: A short poem intended to be sung.

  Dead and Buried

  I have borne my cross: Kennedy uses various scriptural accounts of Christ’s crucifixion, death and burial throughout this poem. Here he echoes John 19:17: ‘And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.’

  I was scourged: Before his crucifixion, Jesus is severely flogged or, as it is called in John 19:1, ‘scourged’.

  pierced and bleeding: In John 19:34, after Jesus has died during his crucifixion, ‘One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.’

  Seine: The river that runs through Paris. The Paris Peace Conference opened on 12 January 1919. Only Allied leaders were allowed to attend.