Soldier-poets of the Somme, 1916

The horrors of the trench, mud, heavy and inefficient weap­ons, tinned bully beef every day, dead horses poison gas and the sheer terror of waiting for death - these were the truths of the Great War. Perhaps all war was insane, but The Battle of the Somme in 1916 was war at its most insane, its most irrat­ional. If careful thinking and analysis were the basic elements of a moral life, what were these teenage volunteers doing, killing other families’ young teenage sons and being killed in turn.

In the past, the Battle of the Somme was certainly seen as the most famous battle of World War I, remembered for its endless blood­shed and its dismal territorial gains. In 2014 the BBC examined the literary importance of the Somme, noting that more writers and poets fought in it than in any other battle in history

Violets from Overseas: Portraits of Poets of the Great War, 

by Tonie & Valmai Holt, 1996

The BBC programme War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme details the experiences of the poets and writers who served in the battle. The BBC concentrated on the work of Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), Robert Graves, David Jones and Isaac Rosenberg, young men who were informed and transf­or­m­ed by the battle. Taken together, their experiences allow us to see this dreadful historical event as though we were there.

An important memorial in Poets' Corner inside Westminster Abbey is dedicated to 16 Great War poets. The slate stone slab with the names of the poets inscribed on it was unveiled exactly on the right date: 11th November 1985, the anniversary of the Armistice. The Wilfred Owen inscription around the names is short and heart-breakingly simple: “My subject is War and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the Pity”

Now Martin Randall Travel will be examining the poets’ words once again in late 2015. “Blending history and poetry, this tour reveals the true landscape of war: locations, topography, events, but also hope, fear, anger, pain and love, all viscerally manifest in the poetry of WW1. The opening day of the Battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916, is taken as the starting point for the tour, with an exploration of the front line area and a study of the events of that day. This leads on to a wider examination of the nature of trench warfare and of the course of the war as a whole. Much has survived: trenches, shell holes and mine craters. The tangible remains of warfare and the pattern of cemeteries are now woven into the fabric of the modern landscape.

What sets this guided tour apart is the parallel exploration of the lives of those regular soldiers, volunteers and civilians who bequeathed to us the most emotionally potent body of poetry in English literature. This is not an exercise in literary analysis, however; the poems are placed in the context of the battlefield and of the lives (and deaths) of the many and varied individuals who wrote them. An actor reads the poems – sometimes at the site where they were composed, sometimes at the scene of the poet’s grave, sometimes at the place of his death or disappearance”. Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Isaac Rosenberg are the stars of a much bigger cast.

The Randall Tour will show how until the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, poetry presented a patriotic and heroic vision, of noble sacrifice for king and country. After the Battle of the Somme, nobility gave way to despair, disillusionment and hopelessness.

World War One British Poets: Brooke, Owen, Sassoon, Rosenberg and Others, 
edited by Candace Ward, 1997

Interested readers might like to read the biographical details of the poets, in addition to examples of their work. Violets from Overseas: Portraits of Poets of the Great War, written by Tonie & Valmai Holt in July 1996. Or read The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry, edited by M.G Walter in 2006. Or read Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology, written by Tim Kendall and published in 2014. A Deep Cry: First World War Soldier-poets Killed in France and Flanders, written by Anne Powell, gives the short-life-and-death stories of all the British poets killed in northern France and Belgium in WW1.  The BBC tv programme War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme 2014 is well worth watching.

Max Egremont's Some Desperate Glory: The First World War the Poets Knew (reviewed in Country Life, 31st Dec 2014) is meticulously structured and a tour de force. Part biography, part anthology, it follows the fortunes of 11 poets. Of these young men, only five survived.


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In July 1918, the poet Wilfred Owen returned to active service in France after convalescing from shell shock. Owen was killed in action on 4th November 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre–Oise Canal, just a week before the signing of the Armistice ending WW1.

Anthem for Doomed Youth

By Wilfred Owen 

1917

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

slate stone slab for WW1 poets (on left)
Poets' Corner inside Westminster Abbey