Read The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry Online
Authors: Various Contributors
The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry (34 page)
Herbert Asquith: âThe Volunteer' included by permission of Macmillan UK.
Maurice Baring: âAugust, 1918' reproduced by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd on behalf of the Trustees of the Maurice Baring Will Trust.
Laurence Binyon: Both poems appear by permission of The Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of Laurence Binyon.
Edmund Blunden: âFestubert: The Old German Line' (1916), âThe Midnight Skaters' (1925), âAt Senlis Once' (1928), âIllusions' (1928), âPreparations for Victory' (1928), âVlamertinghe: Passing the Chateau' (1928), âReport on Experience' (1929) from
Poems of Many Years
by Edmund Blunden (© Estate of Mrs Claire Blunden 1957) and âAncre Sunshine' (© Estate of Mrs Claire Blunden 1968) from
Garland
magazine in July 1968 are reproduced by permission of PFD (
www.pfd.co.uk
) on behalf of the Estate of Mrs Claire Blunden.
Vera Brittain: âThe Superfluous Woman', âHospital Sanctuary' and âThe War Generation:
Ave
' by Vera Brittain from
Poems of the War and After
(1934) are included by permission of Mark Bostridge and Rebecca Williams, her literary executors.
May Wedderburn Cannan: Both poems included by kind permission of James Slater.
G. K. Chesterton: âElegy in a Country Churchyard' reproduced by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd on behalf of the Royal Literary Fund.
Margaret Postgate Cole: âThe Veteran' is included by permission of David Higham Associates on behalf of the author.
Nancy Cunard: âZeppelins' appears by permission of the Heirs of Nancy Cunard.
Walter de la Mare: âThe Marionettes' reprinted by permission of The Literary Trustees of Walter de la Mare and The Society of Authors as their Representative.
Eleanor Farjeon: âEaster Monday' and âNow that you too must shortly go the way' from
Book of Days
published by Oxford University Press. Used by permission of David Higham Associates on behalf of the author.
Gilbert Frankau: All poems reproduced by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd on behalf of Timothy d'Arch Smith.
Robert Frost: âNot To Keep' by Robert Frost from
The Poetry of Robert Frost
, edited by Edward Connery Lathem and published by Jonathan Cape. Used by permission of the Estate of Robert Frost and The Random House Group Ltd.
Wilfrid Gibson: All poems included by permission of Macmillan UK.
Robert Graves: All poems appear by permission of Carcanet Press Ltd.
Teresa Hooley: âA War Film' included by kind permission of the National Federation of Retirement Pensions Association.
A. E. Housman: Both poems appear by permission of The Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of A. E. Housman.
Rudyard Kipling: All poems reproduced by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd on behalf of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty.
Rose Macaulay: âPicnic' reprinted by permission of PFD
(
www.pfd.co.uk
) on behalf of the estate of Rose Macaulay © Estate of Rose Macaulay (as printed in the original volume).
John Masefield: âAugust, 1914' reprinted by permission of The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of John Masefield.
Sir Henry Newbolt: âThe War Films' appears by kind permission of Peter Newbolt.
Robert Nichols: Both poems are included by permission of Anne Charlton.
Jessie Pope: âWar Girls' from
Simple Rhymes for Stirring Times
© Octopus Publishing Ltd 1916.
Edgell Rickword: All poems appear by permission of Carcanet Press Ltd.
Siegfried Sassoon: All poems © Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of George Sassoon.
âAncient History', âAftermath', âPicture-show', âOn Passing the New Merin Gate', âMemorial Tablet', âEveryone Song', âThe Meath-Bed', âRepression of War Experience', âThey', âBlighters', âSick Leave', âCounter Attack', âBanishment', âThe Redeemer', âIn Barracks', âKiss', from
Collected Poems of Siegfried Sassoon
by Siegfried Sassoon, copyright 1918, 1920 by E. A. Dutton. Copyright 1936, 1946, 1947, 1948 by Siegfried Sassoon, used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Edward Shanks: âArmistice Day, 1921' included by permission of Macmillan UK.
May Sinclair: âField Ambulance in Retreat' is reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London, on behalf of the Estate of May Sinclair © May Sinclair 1914.
Edith Sitwell: âThe Dancers' is included by permission of David Higham Associates on behalf of the author.
Osbert Sitwell: All poems appear by permission of David Higham Associates on behalf of the author.
Francis Brett Young: Both poems are reproduced by permission of David Higham Associates on behalf of the author.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. The publishers would be interested to hear from any copyright holders not here acknowledged.
| A league and a league from the trenches â from the traversed maze of the lines, | 120 |
| A leaping wind from England, | 139 |
| A minx in khaki struts the limelit boards: | 182 |
| A soldier passed me in the freshly fallen snow, | 275 |
| A straight flagged road, laid on the rough earth, | 143 |
| Adam, a brown old vulture in the rain, | 271 |
| Admonition: To Betsey, The | 184 |
| After so much battering of fire and steel | 152 |
| After the dread tales and red yarns of the Line | 46 |
| After the fallen sun the wind was sad | 61 |
| After War | 66 |
| Aftermath | 267 |
| Air-Raid | 185 |
| â All the hills and vales along ' | 33 |
| All the hills and vales along | 33 |
| An ancient saga tells us how | 73 |
| Ancient History | 271 |
| Ancre Sunshine | 277 |
| âAnd all her silken flanks with garlands drest' â | 72 |
| And have we done with War at last? | 230 |
| And still they come and go: and this is all I know â | 258 |
| And still we stood and stared far down | 76 |
| Anthem for Doomed Youth | 131 |
| Apologia pro Poemate Meo | 81 |
| â Après la guerre finie ' | 225 |
| Après la guerre finie, | 225 |
| Are you going? To-night we must hear all your laughter; | 40 |
| Armistice Day, 1921 | 241 |
| Arms and the Boy | 32 |
| Around me, when I wake or sleep, | 92 |
| As I went up by Ovillers | 112 |
| As the Team's Head-Brass | 200 |
| As the team's head-brass flashed out on the turn | 200 |
| âAt least it wasn't your fault' I hear them console | 170 |
| At Senlis Once | 69 |
| August, 1914 | 8 |
| August, 1918 | 75 |
Back to Rest | |
| Ballad of the Three Spectres | 112 |
| Banishment | 79 |
| Beau Ideal, The | 212 |
| Before Action | 99 |
| Before the Battle | 88 |
| Before the Charge | 126 |
| Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, | 141 |
| â Blighters ' | 181 |
| Blighty | 168 |
| Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead! | 156 |
| Bombardment (Richard Aldington) | 124 |
| Bombardment (D. H. Lawrence) | 122 |
| â Bombed last night ' | 49 |
| Bombed last night, and bombed the night before. | 49 |
| Break of Day in the Trenches | 48 |
| Breakfast | 50 |
| Butchers and Tombs | 152 |
| By all the glories of the day, | 99 |
Call, The | |
| Canadians | 78 |
| Carrion ( Youth in Arms IV: Carrion ) | 149 |
| Cenotaph, The | 237 |
| Channel Firing | 2 |
| Child's Nightmare, A | 216 |
| Colonel Cold strode up the Line | 53 |
| Comrades of risk and rigour long ago | 161 |
| Conscript, The | 27 |
| Convalescence | 210 |
| Counter-Attack | 135 |
| Crippled for life at seventeen, | 207 |
| Crucifix Corner | 70 |
Dancers, The | |
| Darkness: the rain sluiced down; the mire was deep; | 62 |
| Day's March, The | 116 |
| Dead, The ( 1914: The Dead ) | 156 |
| Dead, The ( 1914: The Dead ) | 157 |
| Dead and Buried | 232 |
| Dead Boche, A | 150 |
| Dead Cow Farm | 73 |
| Dead Man's Dump | 146 |
| Dear, let me thank you for this: | 173 |
| Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest | 29 |
| Death-Bed, The | 220 |
| Deserter, The | 163 |
| Despair and doubt in the blood: | 171 |
| Dilemma, The | 19 |
| Disabled | 252 |
| Down the boulevards the crowds went by, | 228 |
| Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way | 44 |
| Downwards slopes the wild red sun. | 118 |
| Dulce et Decorum est | 141 |
Easter Monday | |
| â Education ' | 187 |
| Elegy in a Country Churchyard | 245 |
| Entrance and exit wounds are silvered clean, | 263 |
| Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries | 246 |
| Epitaphs: A Son | 194 |
| Epitaphs: Common Form | 245 |
| Epitaphs: The Coward | 162 |
| Eve of Assault: Infantry Going Down to Trenches | 118 |
| Eve of War, The | 4 |
| Everyone Sang | 226 |
| Everyone suddenly burst out singing; | 226 |
| Exposure | 55 |
Face, The | |
| Familiar, year by year, to the creaking wain | 74 |
| Farmer, 1917, The | 202 |
| Festubert, 1916 | 259 |
| Field Ambulance in Retreat | 143 |
| First Time In | 46 |
| â For All We Have and Are ' | 13 |
| For all we have and are, | 13 |
| For the Fallen | 235 |
| Four days the earth was rent and torn | 124 |
| Fragment | 45 |
| From out the dragging vastness of the sea, | 210 |
| Futility | 54 |
Generation | |
| Gethsemane | 130 |
| Ghosts crying down the vistas of the years, | 255 |
| Girl to Soldier on Leave | 174 |
| God heard the embattled nations sing and shout | 19 |
| Going Back | 179 |
| Greater Love | 93 |
| Grotesque | 67 |
Halted against the shade of a last hill, | |
| Happy boy, happy boy, | 25 |
| Happy is England Now | 12 |
| Have you forgotten yet?⦠| 267 |
| âHave you news of my boy Jack?' | 164 |
| He drowsed and was aware of silence heaped | 220 |
| He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark, | 252 |
| He's gone, and all our plans | 97 |
| Head to limp head, the sunk-eyed wounded scanned | 211 |
| Headquarters | 120 |
| Here lies a clerk who half his life had spent | 154 |
| Here on the blind verge of infinity | 88 |
| âHi-diddle-diddle | 162 |
| High Wood | 257 |
| His Mate | 162 |
| Home Service | 170 |
| Hospital Sanctuary | 209 |
| How still this quiet cornfield is to-night! | 8 |
| Hugh Selwyn Mauberley: V | 248 |
I am banished from the patient men who fight | |
| I could not look on Death, which being known, | 162 |
| â I don't want to be a soldier ' | 26 |
| I don't want to be a soldier, | 26 |
| â I have a rendezvous with Death ' | 105 |
| I have a rendezvous with Death | 105 |
| I have been young, and now am not too old; | 231 |
| I have borne my cross through Flanders, | 232 |
| I have come to the borders of sleep, | 103 |
| I hear the tinkling of the cattle bell, | 75 |
| I knew a man, he was my chum, | 98 |
| â I looked up from my writing ' | 195 |
| I looked up from my writing, | 195 |
| I love you, great new Titan! | 24 |
| I love you â Titan lover, | 174 |
| I saw, | 190 |
| I saw the bodies of earth's men | 132 |
| I saw the people climbing up the street | 186 |
| I see a farmer walking by himself | 202 |
| I shall be mad if you get smashed about; | 114 |
| I strayed about the deck, an hour, to-night | 45 |
| I, too, saw God through mud â | 81 |
| â I tracked a dead man down a trench ' | 110 |
| I tracked a dead man down a trench, | 110 |
| â I want to go home ' | 166 |
| I want to go home, | 166 |
| I was wrong, quite wrong; | 151 |
| I wonder if the old cow died or not? | 113 |
| â I wore a tunic ' | 180 |
| I wore a tunic, | 180 |
| âI'm sorry I done it, Major.' | 163 |
| If any question why we died, | 245 |
| If I should die, think only this of me: | 108 |
| If it were not for England, who would bear | 36 |
| If We Return | 167 |
| If we return, will England be | 167 |
| If ye Forget | 269 |
| If you should die, think only this of me | 109 |
| Illusions | 59 |
| In A Soldiers' Hospital I: Pluck | 207 |
| In A Soldiers' Hospital II: Gramophone Tunes | 208 |
| In all his glory the sun was high and glowing | 277 |
| In Barracks | 37 |
| In bitter London's heart of stone, | 176 |
| In cities and in hamlets we were born, | 274 |