The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry (28 page)

Their name liveth for ever:
‘Their name liveth for evermore' is inscribed on all Stones of Remembrance, designed by Edwin Lutyens to represent those of all faiths and none, in British war cemeteries containing more than 1,000 graves. The quotation
was chosen by Rudyard Kipling from the Apocrypha:

‘Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for

evermore' (Ecclesiasticus 44:14).

immolation:
Sacrificial slaughter of a victim, or the deliberate destruction of something for the sake of something else.

sepulchre:
A tomb built from stone.

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley: V

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley:
The titular hero of Pound's poem is a fictitious character loosely based on Pound himself.

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

gross:
An amount equal to twelve dozen, or 144.

War and Peace

To old men's stools:
To jobs as office clerks alongside those who were too old to fight in the war.

Disabled

peg:
A short drink, usually of whisky.

giddy jilts:
Scots slang for ‘flighty women'.

daggers in plaid socks:
A knife called a skean-dhu is worn in the top of a stocking as part of traditional Scottish Highland dress, and has been adopted by certain Scottish regiments.

Esprit de corps:
Regimental spirit.

Strange Hells

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

diaphragms:
The diaphragm is the large muscle, just below the ribcage, which controls the expansion of the lungs.

State-doles:
The first Unemployment Benefit Act was passed in
1913. In 1919 it was expanded to take in all the people who had contributed to the war effort, and the benefits paid were given the unofficial name of ‘the dole' because they had not been ‘earned' by contributions and were therefore ‘doled' out irrespective.

tatterns:
Ragged, tatty clothing.

‘Have you forgotten yet?'

Festubert, 1916

This poem was retitled ‘1916 as seen from 1921' when it was republished in
Poems 1914–30
(London: Cobden Sanderson, 1930).

breastwork:
Festubert had a well-established trench called the ‘Northern Breastwork'.

Shrewd:
Sharply.

Lamplight

crossed swords in the Army List:
A mark signifying that the soldier concerned had been wounded or killed in action – the Army List is the official register of commissioned officers serving in the British army.

A scarlet cross on my breast:
A reference to the white linen aprons decorated with a red cross worn by nurses during the war.

Recalling War

silvered clean:
Silver nitrate is a powerful antiseptic.

The track:
Scar tissue.

a switch:
A thin, flexible stick cut from a tree.

War Books

Cotswold:
The Cotswolds are an area of great natural beauty in central England.

Aftermath

gagged days:
The Defence of the Realm Act, passed by the House of Commons on 8 August 1914, gave the government wide-ranging powers to control daily life in Britain, including what was said and written about the war.

The Midnight Skaters

hop-poles:
Poles driven into the ground upon which the plants used in brewing are grown.

Ancient History

Adam:
The first man created by God: ‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul' (Genesis 2:7).
Cain
and
Abel
were his sons: ‘And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him' (Genesis 4:8).

The War Generation:
Ave

This poem is dated 1932.

Ave:
Latin for ‘Hail!'

To a Conscript of 1940

Qui n'as pas…un héros:
‘He who has not once despaired of honour will never be a hero.'

Georges Bernanos:
The French Catholic novelist and essayist (1888–1948). He wrote most of his major fiction between 1926 and 1937.

fretted:
Ornamented as with jewels.

Coda: Ancre Sunshine

Claire:
Claire Margaret Poynting was Blunden's third wife. They were married on 29 May 1945.

lea:
A tract of open ground, usually meadow, pasture or arable land.

Cross-references are indicated by
italic
type.

Aisne
A département in the north-east of France, named after the river which bisects it to the south. ‘Aisne' was the name given to the third phase of the German Spring Offensive that began on 27 May 1918.

Albert
A town seven kilometres south-west of
Bapaume
. It was captured by the Germans in March 1918 and recaptured by the British five months later.

Allemand
or
Alleyman
The French for ‘German' or its equivalent in soldiers' slang.

Ancre
A river that rises south of
Bapaume
and flows to the
Somme
. It gave its name to a battle fought there in November 1916.

après la guerre finie
French for ‘after the war has finished'. Used by soldiers and civilians alike, often sarcastically.

Arras
A town on the river Scarpe, located twenty kilometres north of
Bapaume
, and the scene of heavy fighting in the autumn of 1914 and in April 1917.

Aubers Ridge
Aubers Ridge was four kilometres from
Laventie
on the
Somme
battlefront.

Aveluy
A small town, two kilometres north of
Albert
, and the location of the British 61st Divisional Headquarters during the war.

Bapaume
A town five kilometres north-east of
Aveluy
, captured by the British in March 1917, by the Germans a year later, and finally retaken by the British in August 1918.

battalion
The basic tactical infantry unit in the British army during the First World War. At full strength, it consisted of
30 officers and 977 other ranks, arranged in a battalion headquarters and four companies.

battery
An artillery unit of guns, vehicles and men.

billet
A place of rest assigned to soldiers.

Blighty
Soldiers' slang for ‘home' or ‘England', and also the name given to a wound that ensured a return to Blighty. Derived from ‘bilayati', the Urdu word for ‘foreign, European'.

Boche
or
Bosches
Soldiers' slang for ‘Germans'. Derived from French slang of uncertain origin.

bombers
Soldiers armed with Mills bombs, the first safe handheld grenade, invented by William Mills in 1915.

bolt-head
See
rifle
.

breastwork
See
trench
.

Cambrai
A town ten kilometres east of
Bapaume
and the location of the final Allied attack on the Hindenburg Line, the system of German fortifications in the northern and central sectors of the Western Front, on 20 November 1917. German forces regained the ground they had lost by 7 December.

cartridge
See
rifle
.

conscript
Conscription (enforced military service) was introduced in January 1916, and was initially for unmarried men aged between eighteen and forty-one. It was extended to include married men and widowers in May 1916.

Corbie
A small town fifteen kilometres east of Amiens. During the war it was used by British troops as a rest area and was the site of a casualty clearing station.

cordite
An explosive, co-invented in 1889 by Sir James Dewar and Sir Frederick Abel. A blend of nitrocellulose, nitroglycerine and petroleum jelly, it gives off a strong smell but is in fact smokeless when fired.

Crucifix Corner
A junction in the
trench
system on the banks of the
Ancre
near
Aveluy
, named after a dismembered crucifix that stood there.

crump
See
shell
.

Dead Cow Farm
This landmark lay about four kilometres due east of Neuve Eglise, a village itself about thirteen kilometres south-south-west of
Ypres
. It was so named by the British because of the presence of a number of cows' carcasses.

Death's Valley
The section of the
trench
system closest to the British front
line
at Grandecourt, some six kilometres south of
Albert
, named after the biblical ‘valley of the shadow of death' (Psalms 23:4).

duckboard
See
trench
.

dugout
See
trench
.

eighteen-pounders
See
shell
.

emplacement
A platform for heavy guns.

fatigues
A soldier's non-combatant duties, such as digging,
wire
-mending or food preparation.

Fauquissart
A small village two kilometres south-west of
Laventie
.

Festubert
A small village approximately eleven kilometres south of
Laventie
.

fire-step
See
trench
.

five-nines
See
shell
.

Flanders
The area of Belgium which was the northernmost part of the Western Front during the First World War.

flare
A
cartridge
containing a signal light, fired from a special pistol – used for signalling at night or for illuminating the enemy's position. Sometimes called Very (or Verey) lights, after their inventor, Samuel W. Very.

foresight
See
rifle
.

Fricourt
A village about five kilometres east of
Albert
. It was one of the main objectives of the Allies on the first day of the
Somme
Offensive, but it remained in enemy hands.

Frise
A village on the banks of the river
Somme
, about eight kilometres west of Peronne.

Fritz
Soldiers' slang for a German or Germans. The familiar form of ‘Friedrich'.

front
See
line
.

fusilier
A member of a British army regiment originally armed with light muskets.

gone West
Soldiers' slang for ‘died'.

Gonnehem
A small town fifteen kilometres south-west of
Laventie
, and the scene of fierce fighting during the 1918 Spring Offensive.

High Wood
Known by the French as Bois de Fourneaux (Furnace Wood), this was a prominent wooded area on the
Somme
and the scene of heavy fighting throughout the summer of 1916.

home service
Military duty in one's own country. During the First World War, a significant percentage of soldiers remained on home service, carrying out transport, clerical, farming and maintenance duties.

Hun
Soldiers' slang for a German. Derived from a speech given by the
Kaiser
in July 1900, when he drew a parallel between his and Attila the Hun's troops: ‘Just as the Huns a thousand years ago…gained a reputation in virtue of which they still live in historical tradition, so may the name of Germany become known.'

Jack Johnson
See
shell
.

Kaiser
or
Kaiser Bil
l Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941) was Emperor of Germany from 1888 until 9 November 1918, when he abdicated and fled to Holland.

khaki
From ‘kaki', the Urdu for ‘dust-coloured', and the name given to the light green-brown material used to make the uniforms of the British Expeditionary Force.

Last Post
A bugle call traditionally sounded to signal the end of the military day, frequently accompanied by the order ‘Lights out!'. It is also played at military funerals and services of commemoration.

Laventie
A town in
Flanders
, about thirty kilometres south of
Ypres
, where troops were stationed during the war.

Lewis gun
A light machine gun developed by the United States in 1911 and adopted by the British army in 1915. Although it was too heavy for efficient portable use, it became the standard support weapon for the infantry during the war.

lights out
See
Last Post
.

limber
The detachable front of a gun carriage.

line
A military term describing the arrangement of
trench
es on the Western Front. In any given month, troops spent between three and seven days in the front-line or first-line trench, which directly faced the enemy. They would then withdraw to the support line for a similar period of time, and then go back to the reserve-line trench. After this, a week was spent ‘on rest' before returning to the front line (frequently abbreviated to just ‘the line'). The phrase ‘the front', however, refers to the front line, support line and reserve line.