The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry (33 page)

‘Nameless Men' appeared in
Jesus of the Scars and Other Poems
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1919).

Fredegond Shove
was born in Cambridge in 1889, and attended Newnham College, Cambridge, from 1910 to 1913. She died in 1949.

‘The Farmer, 1917' appeared in
Dreams and Journeys
(Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 1918).

May Sinclair
was born at Rock Ferry, Cheshire, in 1863 and was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College. A highly successful novelist and a supporter of the Women's Suffrage Movement, at the outbreak of the war she went to France, where she worked for the Motor Ambulance Unit. Sent back home after only seventeen days, she wrote an account of her experiences as
Journal of Impressions in Belgium
(London: Hutchinson & Co., 1915). After the Armistice, Sinclair became one of the leading exponents of the stream-of-consciousness novel and wrote several studies of the Brontë sisters. She died in 1946.

‘Field Ambulance in Retreat' appeared in
King Albert's Book: A Tribute to the Belgian King and People from Representative Men and Women Throughout the World
(London: The Daily Telegraph in conjunction with the Daily Sketch, the Glasgow Herald and Hodder & Stoughton, 1914).

Edith Sitwell
was born in Scarborough in 1887. She was the daughter of Sir George and Lady Ida Sitwell, and spent her childhood at the family seat at Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire. From 1916 until 1921 she edited
Wheels
, an annual anthology of modern poetry. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1954, and died ten years later.

‘The Dancers' appeared in
Clown's Houses
(Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 1918).

Osbert Sitwell
was born in London in 1892, and was the brother of Edith Sitwell (q.v.). He was educated at Eton, and enlisted in the Reserve Battalion of the Grenadier Guards in 1912. In December 1914 he was transferred to the 1st Battalion, later seeing active service with the 2nd Battalion, but blood poisoning in the spring of 1916 kept him out of further action for the rest of the war. He helped his sister edit
Wheels
, and was an extremely prolific writer, publishing short stories, poems and novels throughout his life. He died in 1969.

‘The Next War', ‘Peace Celebrations', ‘Ragtime' and ‘Therefore is the name of it called Babel' appeared in
Argonaut and Juggernaut
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1919).

Soldiers' songs
. Because these songs were orally transmitted, it is impossible to arrive at any definitive text. Two collections of soldiers' songs which proved useful in the preparation of these versions are John Brophy and Eric Partridge's
The Long Trail: What the British Soldier Sang and Said in the Great War of 1914–18
(London: André Deutsch, 1965) and Max Arthur's
When This Bloody War is Over: Soldiers' Songs of the First World War
(London: Piatkus, 2001).

Charles Hamilton Sorley
was born in 1895 in Aberdeen and was educated at Marlborough College. He spent six months in Germany before the outbreak of war, and won a scholarship to University College, Oxford, but the declaration of hostilities saw him taking up a commission as a second lieutenant in the 7th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment instead. He went to France in May 1915, and by August he held the rank of captain. He was killed in action at Loos on 13 October 1915.

‘All the hills and vales along', ‘To Germany', ‘Two Sonnets' and ‘When you see millions of the mouthless dead' appeared in
Marlborough and Other Poems
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916).

J[ohn] C[ollings] Squire
was born in Plymouth in 1884 and was educated at Blundell's School and at St John's College, Cambridge. He was literary editor then acting editor of the
New Statesman
between 1913 and 1918, and stood as a Labour candidate for Cambridge University in 1918, where he lost his deposit. He founded the
London Mercury
in 1919 and edited it until 1934, combining his duties with a successful career as a poet, parodist, essayist and anthologist. He was knighted in 1933, and he died in 1958.

‘The Dilemma' appeared in
The Survival of the Fittest and Other Poems
(London: George Allen & Unwin, 1916). ‘A Generation (1917)' appeared in
Poems: First Series
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1918).

Edward Thomas
was born in London in 1878 and was educated at St Paul's School and at Lincoln College, Oxford. He worked as an essayist and reviewer, and under the influence of his friend Robert Frost (q.v.) he began to write poetry soon after the outbreak of the war. In July 1915 he enlisted as a private in the 28th (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment (The Artists' Rifles), and he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 244th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery a year later. He had been in France for only three months when he was killed in action at Arras on 9 April 1917.

‘A Private' appeared under the pseudonym Edward Eastaway in
An Annual of New Poetry 1917
(London: Constable & Co., 1917). ‘As the Team's Head-Brass', ‘Lights Out' and ‘The Trumpet' appeared in
Poems by Edward Thomas
(‘
Edward
Eastaway
') (London: Selwyn & Blount, 1917). ‘This is no case of petty Right or Wrong' appeared in
Last Poems
(London: Selwyn & Blount, 1918).

W[alter] J[ames] Turner
was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1889 and was educated at Scotch College, Adelaide. He came to London in 1906, and served in the Royal Garrison Artillery between 1916 and 1918. He was music critic of the
New Statesman
from 1916 until 1940 and the drama critic of the
London Mercury
between 1919 and 1923. He succeeded Siegfried Sassoon (q.v.) as literary editor of the
Daily Herald
in 1920, and from 1942 he was the literary editor of
The Spectator
. He died in 1946.

‘Men Fade Like Rocks' and ‘The Navigators' appeared in
In Time Like Glass
(London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1921).

Francis Brett Young
was born in Halesowen, Worcestershire, in 1884 and was educated at Epsom College and at Birmingham University. A doctor by profession, he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in East Africa, with the rank of major, but was eventually invalided home with fever and exhaustion;
Marching on Tanga
(London: W. Collins Sons & Co., 1917) is an account of his wartime experiences. After the war, he had a successful career as a novelist, dramatist and author of travel books, dying in 1954.

‘Song of the Dark Ages' and ‘The Pavement' appeared in
Poems 1916–1918
(London: W. Collins Sons & Co., 1919).

Andrews, Lieutenant C. E., ed.,
From the Front: Trench Poetry
(New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1918)

Clark, G. H., ed.,
A Treasury of War Poetry
(London and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1917)

Collins, V. H., ed.,
Poems of War and Battle
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914)

A Crown of Amaranth: Being a Collection of Poems to the Memory of the Brave and Gallant Gentlemen Who Gave Their Lives for Great and Greater Britain
(London: Erskine Macdonald, 1915)

Elliott, H. B., ed.,
Lest We Forget: A War Anthology
(London: Jarrolds, 1915)

Halliday, W. J., ed.,
Pro Patria: A Book of Patriotic Verse
(London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1915)

Kyle, Galloway, ed.,
Soldier Poets: Songs of the Fighting Men
(London: Erskine Macdonald, 1916)

——, ed.,
Soldier Poets: More Songs by the Fighting Men
(London: Erskine Macdonald, 1917)

Leonard, R. M., ed.,
Patriotic Poems
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1914)

Lloyd, Bertram, ed.,
Poems Written during the Great War 1914–1918: An Anthology
(London: George Allen & Unwin, 1918)

Macklin, Alys Eyne, ed.,
The Lyceum Book of War Verse
(London: Erskine Macdonald, 1918)

Manning-Foster, A. E., ed.,
Lord God of Battles: A War Anthology
(London: Cope & Fenwick, 1914)

Osborn, E. B., ed.,
The Muse in Arms: A Collection of War Poems, for the Most Part Written in the Field of Action, by Seamen, Soldiers and Flying Men Who Are Serving, or Have Served in the Great War
(London: John Murray, 1917)

Poems of the Great War
(London, Chatto & Windus, 1914)

Songs and Sonnets for England in Wartime: Being a Collection of Lyrics by Various Authors Inspired by the Great War
(London: John Lane, 1914)

Tulloch, David, ed.,
Songs and Poems of the Great World War
(London: Davis Press, 1915)

Black, E. L., ed.,
1914–18 in Poetry
(London: University of London Press, 1970)

Brereton, Frederick, ed.,
An Anthology of War Poems
(London: Collins, 1930)

Cross, Tim, ed.,
The Lost Voices of World War One
(London: Bloomsbury, 1988)

Featherstone, Simon, ed.,
War Poetry: An Introductory Reader
(London: Routledge, 1995)

Gardner, Brian, ed.,
Up the Line to Death: The War Poets 1914–1918
(London: Methuen, 1964)

Hibberd, Dominic, and Onions, John, eds.,
Poetry of the Great War: An Anthology
(London: Macmillan, 1986)

Hussey, Maurice, ed.,
Poetry of the First World War
(London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1967)

Jaquet, E. R., ed.,
These Were the Men: Poems of the War, 1914–1918
(London: Marshall Bros., 1919)

Lloyd, Bertram, ed.,
The Paths of Glory: A Collection of Poems Written during the War 1914–1919
(London: George Allen & Unwin, 1919)

Motion, Andrew, ed.,
First World War Poems
(London: Faber & Faber, 2003)

Nichols, Robert, ed.,
An Anthology of War Poetry 1914–1918
(London: Nicholson & Watson, 1943)

Parsons, I. M., ed.,
Men Who March Away: Poems of The First World War
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1965)

Reilly, Catherine, ed.,
Scars upon My Heart: Women's Poetry of the First World War
(London: Virago, 1981)

Roberts, David, ed.,
Minds at War: Essential Poetry of the First World War in Context
(Burgess Hill: Saxon Books, 1998)

Silkin, Jon, ed.,
The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry
(Harmondsworth: Allen Lane and Penguin Books, 1979)

Stephen, Martin, ed.,
Never Such Innocence: A New Anthology of Great War Verse
(London: Buchan & Enright, 1988)

Taylor, Martin, ed.,
Lads: Love Poetry of the Trenches
(London: Constable, 1989)

Trotter, Jacqueline, ed.,
Valour and Vision
(London: Hopkinson, 1920)

Bergonzi, Bernard,
Heroes' Twilight: A Study of the Literature of the Great War
(Manchester: Carcanet, 1997)

Buitenhuis, Peter,
The Great War of Words: Literature as Propaganda 1914–18 and After
(London: Batsford, 1989)

Caesar, Adrian,
Taking It Like a Man: Suffering, Sexuality and the War Poets
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993)

Graham, Desmond,
The Truth of War: Owen, Rosenberg and Blunden
(Manchester: Carcanet, 1984)

Hibberd, Dominic, ed.,
Poetry of the First World War: A Casebook
(London: Macmillan, 1981)

Johnston, John H.,
English Poetry of the First World War: A Study in the Evolution of Lyric and Narrative Form
(London: Oxford University Press, 1964)

Khan, Nosheen,
Women's Poetry of the First World War
(Brighton: Harvester, 1988)

Lyon, Philippa,
Twentieth-Century War Poetry
(London: Pal-grove Macmillan, 2005)

Marsland, Elizabeth A.,
The Nation's Cause: French, English and German Poetry of the First World War
(London: Routledge, 1991)

Parfitt, George,
English Poetry of the First World War: Contexts and Themes
(Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990)

Reilly, Catherine,
English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography
(London: George Prior, 1978)

Roucoux, Michel, ed.,
English Literature of the Great War Revisited: Proceedings of a Symposium at the University of Picardy
(Amiens: Presses de L'UER Clerc Université, 1989)

Rutherford, Andrew,
The Literature of War: Five Studies in Heroic Virtue
(London: Macmillan, 1978)

Silkin, Jon,
Out of Battle: The Poetry of the Great War
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972)

Spear, Hilda D.,
Remembering, We Forget: A Background Study to the Poetry of the First World War
(London: Davis-Poynter, 1979)

Bond, Brian,
The Unquiet Western Front: Britain's Role in Literature and History
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)

Ecksteins, Modris,
Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age
(London: Bantam Press, 1989)

Fussell, Paul,
The Great War and Modern Memory
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975)

Hynes, Samuel,
A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture
(London: Bodley Head, 1990)

Stephen, Martin,
The Price of Pity: Poetry, History and Myth in the Great War
(London: Leo Cooper, 1996)

Todman, Dan,
The Great War: Myth and Memory
(London: Hambledon and London, 2005)

Richard Aldington: All poems © The Estate of Richard Aldington.

Martin Armstrong: ‘Before the Battle' (1921) is reproduced from
Collected Poems
by Martin Armstrong (© Estate of Martin Armstrong 1931) by permission of PFD (
www.pfd.co.uk
) on behalf of the estate of Martin Armstrong.