THE PENGUIN BOOK OF FIRST WORLD WAR POETRY

EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JON SILKIN

SECOND EDITION

PENGUIN BOOKS CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 8 NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION 12 Note on the 1996 Edition 13 INTRODUCTION 15

THOMAS HARDY (184O-1928) 78 Channel Firing 78 Drummer Hodge 79

RUPERT BROOKE (1887-1915) 8l From 1914 IV. The Dead 81 V. The Soldier 81 JULIAN GRENFELL (1888-1915) 83 Into Battle 83

JOHNMCCRAE(I872-I9I8) 85 In Flanders Fields 85 ALAN SEEGER (1888-1916) 86 Rendezvous 86 CHARLESHAMILTON SORLEY (1895-I915) 87 'All the hills and vales along' 87 Two Sonnets 88 'When you see millions of the mouthless dead' 89

EDWARD THOMAS (1878-I917) 91 A Private 91 Man and Dog 91 The Owl 93 In Memoriam (Easter, 1915) 93 Fifty Faggots 93 This is No Case of Petty Right or Wrong 94 Rain 95 Roads 96 February Afternoon 98 The Cherry Trees 98 2 Contents

As the Team's Head-Brass 99 Gone, Gone Again 100 (1896-I974) 102 Two Voices 102 Preparations for Victory 102 Come On, My Lucky Lads 103 The Zonnebeke Road 104 Vlamertinghe: Passing the Chateau, July, 1917 106 Third Ypres 106 Gouzeaucourt: The Deceitful Calm no La Quinque Rue 111 The Ancre at Hamel: Afterwards in 1916 seen from 1921 112 Report on Experience 113 The Midnight Skaters 114 IVOR GURNEY(I890-I937) 115 To His Love 115 The Silent One 116 The Bohemians 116 Butchers and Tombs 117 War Books 117 Strange Hells 118 It is near Toussaints 119 (1895-1985) 120 To Robert Nichols 120 Recalling War 121 (I886-I967) 123 A Working Party 123 'The rank stench of those bodies haunts me still' 124 The Death-Bed 127 Prelude: The Troops 128 Counter-Attack 129 Base Details 131 Lamentations 131 Does it Matter? 131 Glory of Women 132 Repression of War Experience 133 Contents

RUDYARD KIPLING (1865-1936) 135 Epitaphs of the War (1914-18) A Servant 135 A Son 135 The Coward 135 Pelicans in the Wilderness (A Grave near Haifa) 135 The Refined Man 135 Common Form 136 A Drifter off Tarentum 136 Gethsemane(i9i4-i8) 136

EDGELL RICKWORD (1898- ) 138 The Soldier Addresses his Body 138 Winter Warfare 139

E. E. CUMMINGS(l894-I962) 140 'my sweet old etcetera' 140

RICHARD ALDINGTON (1892-1962) 141 Field Manoeuvres Outpost Duty 141 In the Trenches 142 Trench Idyll 143 Resentment 144 FORD MADOX FORD (1873-1939) 145 From 'Antwerp' 145 That Exploit of Yours 146

F. s. FLINT (1885-1960) 147 Lament 147

ALICE MEYNELL(I847-I922) 149 Summer in , 1914 149 MAY WEDDERBURN CANNAN (1893-I973) 151 Lamplight 151 CHARLOTTE MEW (1869-1928) 153 The Cenotaph 153 4 Contents

MARGARET POSTGATE COLE (1893-1980) 155 The Veteran 155 Afterwards 155 MINA LOY (1882-1966) 157 Der Blinde Junge 157

T. E. HULME(I883-I9I7) 159 Trenches: St Eloi 159 HERBERT READ (1893-1968) 160 The Happy Warrior 160 The End of a War Argument 160 Meditation of a Dying German Officer 162 Dialogue between the Body and the Soul of the Murdered Girl 167 Meditation of the Waking English Officer 171 A Short Poem for Armstice Day 176 DAVID JONES (1895-1974) 177 From In Parenthesis, Part 7 177 HAROLD MUNRO (1879-I932) 185 From 'Youth in Arms' 185 IV. Carrion 185 JOHN PEALE BISHOP (1892-1944) 187 In the Dordogne 187 FREDERIC MANNING (1887-1935) 189 Grotesque 189 (1893-1918) 190 Exposure 190 TheDead-Beat 191 192 193 Disabled 194 195 Apologia Pro Poemate Meo 197 The Show 198 Contents 5

Insensibility 199 A Terre 201 From 'Wild with All Regrets' 203 The Send-Off 204 205 206 206 The Sentry 208 Smile, Smile, Smile 209 Spring Offensive 210 D. H. LAWRENCE (1885-1930) 213 Song of Man Who Has Come Through 213 ISAAC ROSENBERG (1890-1918) 214 On Receiving News of the War 214 From Moses 215 Marching (As Seen from the Left File) 217 August 1914 217 Break of Day in the Trenches 218 'A worm fed on the heart of Corinth' 219 Louse Hunting 219 Returning, We Hear the Larks 220 Dead Man's Dump 221 Daughters of War 223 From The Amulet 225 The Tower of Skulls 226 From The Unicorn 227 Soldier: Twentieth Century 231 Girl to Soldier on Leave 231 The Burning of the Temple 232 The Destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Hordes 233 ARCHIBALD MACLEISH (1892-I982) 234 The Silent Slain 234 CARL SANDBURG (1878-1967) 235 Grass 235 EDNA ST VINCENT MILLAY (1892-I950) 236 Conscientious Objector 236 6 Contents

GEORG HEYM (1887-1912) 237 War 237 'Why do you visit me, white moths, so often?' 238 GEORG TRAKL (1886-1914) 240 Trumpets 240 Night 240 Dejection 241 In the East 242 Lament 242 Grodek 243 ALFRED LICHTENSTEIN (1889-1941) 244 Leaving for the Front 244 ERNST STADLER (1883-I914) 245 Decampment 245 WILHELM KLEMM (1881-I968) 247 Clearing-Station 247 Clearing Station 248 AUGUST STRAMM (1864-1915) 25O Guard-Duty 250 Battlefield 250 ALBERT EHRENSTEIN (1886-1950) 251 The Poet and War 251 ANTON SCHNACK (1892-1973) 252 Nocturnal Landscape 252 YVAN GOLL(I89I-I95O) 254 From Requiem for the Dead of Europe . Recitative (I) 254 Recitative (VIII) 255 GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE (1880-1918) 256 Shadow 256 The Sighs of the Gunner from Dakar 257 CHARLES VILDRAC (1882-I971) 259 Relief 259 Contents

BEJAIN PERET(I899-I959) 261 Little Song of the Maimed 261 RENE ARCOS(l88l-I959) 262 The Dead 262 GIUSEPPE UNGARETTI (1888-1970) 263 Agony 263 Vigil 263 Brothers 264 I am a creature 265 Rivers 265 San Martino del Carso 267 Italy 268 No More Crying Out 269 EUGENIO MONTALE (1896-1981) 270 Thrust and Riposte 270 ALEKSANDR BLOK (1880-I921) 273 The Kite 273 ANNA AKHMATOVA (1889-1967) 274 July 1914 274 OSIP MANDELSTAM (1891-1938) 276 Petropolis 276 MARINA TSVETAYEVA (1892-1941) 277 'A white low sun' 277 URI ZVI GREENBERG (1895-1981) 278 Naming Souls 278

POSTSCRIPT 280 BIBLIOGRAPHY 281 INDEX OF POETS AND TRANSLATORS 287 INDEX OF FIRST LINES 291 INDEX OF TITLES 297