Poems & Poets from the Great War at Sea & World War II
‘Babi Yar’ -Yevgeny Yevtushenko (born 1933) People knew about Babi Yar before Yevtushenko’s poem, but they were silent. And when they read the poem, the silence was broken. Art destroys silence. ‘Testimony-The Memoirs of Dimitri Shostakovich,’ ( edited by Solomon Volkov) ,1979. During the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Babi Yar, a ravine by …
Continue reading “Remember Babi Yar – ‘Art Destroys Silence’”
‘Silent Service’-Siegfried Sassoon Now, mulltifold, let Britain’s patient power Be proven within us for the world to see, None are exempt from service in this hour: And vanquished in ourselves we dare not be. Now, for a sunlit future, we can show The clenched resolved endurance that defies Daemons in dark,-and toward that future go …
Continue reading “Sassoon re-appraised by World War 2 Serving Poets”
The Scottish World War 2 Poets and the Desert “There are many dead in the brutish desert who lie uneasy among the scrub in this landscape of half-wit stunted ill-will. For the dead land is insatiate and necrophilious . The sand is blowing about still. …. And sleep now. Sleep here the sleep of the …
Continue reading “The Scottish World War 2 Poets – Part One”
“The raiders first fired the medieval centre, crowned by its beautiful cathedral, which was gutted. They then poured hundreds of tones of bombs into the city, in an attack which lasted ten hours. Approaching one-third of the ctiy’s houses were made uninhabitable, …..A hundred acres of the city centre were destroyed. Five hundred and fifty-four …
Was recently reading an anthology ‘More Poems from the Forces By Serving Members Of the Navy, Army, and Air Force’ edited by Keidrich Rhys from 1943 ‘ This Volume is dedicated to the U.S.S.R. Said anthology has some intriguing work such as Peter Hellings ( Aircraftman 2, R.A.F. ) FROM DISTANT LANDS (For the writers …
Vernon Scannell deserves the title of ‘War Poet’ (1922- 2007) . Saw active service in North Africa and in the D Day campaign. He was what was euphemistically called a ‘serial absconder’ , i.e a deserter, who served time in a military prison, and spent several years on the run when World War 2. His …
Continue reading “Vernon Scannell -The neglected Prose and The Walking Wounded”
Current Research Projects Beatrice Gibbs/ Alexandra Etheldreda Grantham Thought that it was time to expand about the purposes of this blog. As well as trying to highlight the whole range of World War 2 poetry that is in danger of being overshadowed and forgotten, it’s also important to encourage further research, trying to discover more …
Continue reading “Beatrice Gibbs/ Alexandra Etheldreda Grantham”
A Forgotten Poet of World War 2 I first came across the work of John Bayliss from looking at Andrew Sinclair ‘The War of the Wasp- The Lost Decade of the Forties’ (1989). The book’s title came from a John Bayliss poem ‘Epilogue : Testament and Prophecy’ . “And I say to you who have …