Today's poet

[Harry H Howgill]

Hey! Really well done Triple H - FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Mossy. I couldn't have done it without all the Fell Poets! :-)

[freckle]

Thanks Mossy. I couldn't have done it without all the Fell Poets! :-)

I know ...well i didn't want to mention that it was all my coaching that got you there! he he !

[freckle]

Yes I have seen that I think L.F.F. they are in the same hospital aren't they?

This is one of Sassoon's most famous poems and when I searched the poetry thread I found that Hanneke had posted it last November

Suicide in the Trenches (1917)

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

Siegfried Sassoon

Great choice...i haven't seen regeneration the film but it is one of my favourite books, it tells the tell of sassoon and owen and their relationship with their shrink who is treating them for something aproximating to what we now know as PTSD (then shell shock) but it is a lot more complicated and multi layered than that too. There is a political slant to the book which is interesting and it is written in a sensitive and moving manner, well worth a read.

[L.F.F.]

I didn't realise it was a book to be honest so will have to look that up!

Interesting that the poem Alf posted and the one I posted by Wilfred Owen both seem to focus on youth to a great extent. Tragic, but great poems.

[Derby Tup]

My first Crapsey cinquain:

Local,
Copper beech tree,
Standing in nearby field,
Sheds its golden leaves, overnight,
Naked

[dominion]

I didn't realise it was a book to be honest so will have to look that up!

Interesting that the poem Alf posted and the one I posted by Wilfred Owen both seem to focus on youth to a great extent. Tragic, but great poems.

It's a trilogy - I found them a bit hard work, but that's probably my lack of culture!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_Trilogy

[L.F.F.]

It's a trilogy - I found them a bit hard work, but that's probably my lack of culture!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_Trilogy

Thanks for that. Will have a look.

[Derby Tup]

It's a trilogy - I found them a bit hard work, but that's probably my lack of culture!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_Trilogy

I saw the first film at the cinema when it was first released. Don't watch it if you're having a bad time in your life

[Stolly]

If you're looking for a (factual) book about the Somme then read Bloody Victory. It actually blows away an awful lot of the perceived futility of the battle (and yes thats despite 50,000 British casualties on the first day of which unbelievably 20,000 were killed) and demonstrates, kind of like Stalingrad in WWII, that the Somme was a crucial (but awful) step towards us actually winning the war.

Also at the time most of the British, South African, Anzac and Canadians and French that fought in the battle (and the rest of the war come to that) were extremely proud of their accomplishments, whilst also rueing the huge sacrifices involved. I think that this though flies in the face of conventional wisdom - brave soldiers being butchered needlessly by Colonel Melchett type baffoons. Even Sassoon, who almost became a pacifist on the back of his first hand experiences on the Somme, finally realised that the only real alternative was to see it out and win. Although I like Blackadder Goes Forth and really like Birdsong and films like Oh What a Lovely War I think they have actually provided people nowadays with a very warped and one sided view of the Great War.

Here endeth the miltary history lesson

[Stef F]

My first Crapsey cinquain:

Local,
Copper beech tree,
Standing in nearby field,
Sheds its golden leaves, overnight,
Naked

Darn; I missed it in its full glory :boohoo: