A Treasury of War Poetry British and American Poems of the World War 1914-1917

by George Herbert Clarke (Editor)

This book contains poetry from numerous countries all centered around the subject of war. Primarily British and American poems dating from 1914 to 1917 have been collected in this edition by the editor George Clarke. The subject matter of these poems encompass patriotism, courage, self-sacrifice, enterprise, and endurance. Authors included are V Lindsay, Galsworthy, Kipling and others.

Genres: Poetry, War, World War I

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

1873-1953

Reviews

[Katja Labonté · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars & 5/10 hearts. This book was beautiful, heart-tugging, thought-provoking, old-fashioned. I read part of it as I read through Rilla of Ingleside and I was startled by how the ideas and feeling of Rilla and of The Singing Tree were mirrored in these poems.

There are poems about the cost of war…. the snuffing out of souls, the harrowing of hearts, the crushing of limbs, the horror of mind.

Must I for more than carnage call you claimant,
Paying you a penny for each son you slay?
Man, the whole globe in gold were no repayment
For what you have lost. And how shall I repay?
What is the price of that red spark that caught me
From a kind farm that never had a name?
What is the price of that dead man they brought me?
For other dead men do not look the same.
How should I pay for one poor graven steeple
Whereon you shattered what you shall not know?
How should I pay you, miserable people?
How should I pay you everything you owe?
Unhappy, can I give you back your honour?
Though I forgave, would any man forget?

There are poems about the beauty of the world and of mankind, persisting in spite of bombs and curses and bayonet charges.

Green gardens in Laventie!
Soldiers only know the street
Where the mud is churned and splashed about
By battle-wending feet;
And yet beside one stricken house there is a glimpse of grass—
Look for it when you pass.
Beyond the church whose pitted spire
Seems balanced on a strand
Of swaying stone and tottering brick,
Two roofless ruins stand;
And here, among the wreckage, where the back-wall should have been,
We found a garden green.

There are poems about the selfless patriotic love of men and women, and the vision the Allies held.

In nobler breeds we put our trust:
The nations in whose sacred lore
The "Ought" stands out above the "Must,"
And Honor rules in peace and war.
With these we hold in soul and heart,
With these we choose our lot and part,
Till Liberty is safe on sea and shore.

There are poems about the futility and horror of war, and about the brotherhood of man.

When first I saw you in the curious street
Like some platoon of soldier ghosts in grey,
My mad impulse was all to smite and slay,
To spit upon you—tread you 'neath my feet.
But when I saw how each sad soul did greet
My gaze with no sign of defiant frown,
How from tired eyes looked spirits broken down,
How each face showed the pale flag of defeat,
And doubt, despair, and disillusionment,
And how were grievous wounds on many a head.
And on your garb red-faced was other red;
And how you stooped as men whose strength was spent,
I knew that we had suffered each as other,
And could have grasped your hand and cried, "My brother!”

But most of all, the poems remind us of how much was poured out in that horrible war… how many people suffered in so many ways to win freedom…

No more old England will they see—
Those men who've died for you and me.
So lone and cold they lie; but we,
We still have life; we still may greet
Our pleasant friends in home and street;
We still have life, are able still
To climb the turf of Bignor Hill,
To see the placid sheep go by,
To hear the sheep-dog's eager cry,
To feel the sun, to taste the rain,
To smell the Autumn's scents again
Beneath the brown and gold and red
Which old October's brush has spread,
To hear the robin in the lane,
To look upon the English sky.
So young they were, so strong and well,
Until the bitter summons fell—
Too young to die.
Yet there on foreign soil they lie,
So pitiful, with glassy eye
And limbs all tumbled anyhow:
Quite finished, now.
On every heart—lest we forget—
Secure at home—engrave this debt!...
And some leave wives behind, young wives;
Already some have launched new lives:
A little daughter, little son—
For thus this blundering world goes on.
But never more will any see
The old secure felicity,
The kindnesses that made us glad
Before the world went mad.
They'll never hear another bird,
Another gay or loving word—
Those men who lie so cold and lone,
Far in a country not their own;
Those men who died for you and me,
That England still might sheltered be
And all our lives go on the same
(Although to live is almost shame).

And they remind us, so poignantly, how short life is, and what really matters in it.

Our little hour,—how short a tune
To wage our wars, to fan our hates,
To take our fill of armoured crime,
To troop our banners, storm the gates.
Blood on the sword, our eyes blood-red,
Blind in our puny reign of power,
Do we forget how soon is sped
Our little hour?
Our little hour,—how soon it dies:
How short a time to tell our beads,
To chant our feeble Litanies,
To think sweet thoughts, to do good deeds.
The altar lights grow pale and dim,
The bells hang silent in the tower—
So passes with the dying hymn
Our little hour.

Content: some euphemisms & swearing; some mentions of wine. List will be updated upon reread.

[Tarissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not one to generally sit down and read a book of poetry, but that's exactly what I did when I picked up this anthology of poems. This particular book called out to me, perhaps because I enjoy reading things of the WWI time period. The poems collected in this book all reference to World War I, penned during the years of 1914-1917.

"Rubadub! Rubadub! Wake and take the road again,
Wheedle-deedle-deedle-dee, Come, boys, come!
You that mean to fight it out, wake and take your load again,
Fall in! Fall in! Follow the fife and drum!"
[The Toy Band by Henry Newbolt]

I have new favorite poems, whereas I never had any favorite poems before. I've become quite acquainted with writers I had not known before, in addition to seeing familiar names such as Robert Frost, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Rudyard Kipling.

"Shadow by shadow, stripped for fight,
The lean black cruisers search the sea.
Night-long their level shafts of light
Revolve, and find no enemy.
Only they know each leaping wave
May hide the lightning, and their grave."
[The Searchlights by Alfred Noyes]

I so enjoyed this charming book! I could definitely see myself going through the entire book and reading them all again someday. Also, the poems in this book can be read online on websites such as Bartleby.com if you're interested.

"God rest you, happy gentlemen,
Who laid your good lives down,
Who took the khaki and the gun
Instead of cap and gown.
God bring you to a fairer place
Than even Oxford town."
[The Spires of Oxford by Winifred M. Letts]

[David Layton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a curious volume of poems written during and about WWI. The collection is not the standard literature department set of anti-war poems. Instead, it is a collection meant to rouse patriotism and convince the reader that the fight against the evil Hun is Righteous in God's eyes. This is certainly the message in the early part of the book. Later poems, written by warriors on the battlefield, are a bit more reserved about the value and purpose of the war. However, none of the poems really strays from the main themes. The collection includes major authors of the time - Kipling, Hardy, Frost, Bridges, Teasdale, Howells, and so on - and many amateur poets. Much of the poetry is in the high poetic style of Romanticism, with old-fashioned diction and appeals to the heavens. I find it an interesting read for historical reasons, to gain perspective on what was, in reality, the majority public opinion at the time. However, because the collection is both stylistically and thematically monotone, I found the reading somewhat tough going. I have more thoughts related to the collection that you can find here:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-1725...

[Susan Molloy · Rating 4 out of 5]

🖊 This is a vast collection of World War I era poetry that speaks about life and death. 📙 This book was published in an unknown year.
🟢The e-book version can be found on this link via Project Gutenberg.
🟪Kindle—sample.
✿●▬●✿●✿●▬●✿

[Daryl-Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection with some old favorites and some new favorites. But the book is poorly designed and formatted with no page numbers in the table of contents making it hard to catalogue and find favorites later. And sometimes a poem’s last line and/or author will be on the next page, all alone by itself. Kind of maddening.

[Loyalhistorian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection, though I have preferred other treasuries of World War I poems I've read. I've been leisurely reading through this collection in my spare time. It's divided into twenty sections on different topics: America; England and America; England; France; Belgium; Russia and America; Italy; Australia; Canada; Liege; Verdun; Oxford; Reflections; Incidents and Aspects; Poets Militant; Auxiliaries; Keeping the Seas; The Wounded; The Fallen; and Women and War.

My favorites that I marked were:
In the Trenches by Maurice Hewlett
The Guards Came Through by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hell-Gate of Soissons by Herbert Kaufman
I Have a Rendezvous With Death by Alan Seeger
The Soldier by Rupert Brooke
The Volunteer by Herbert Asquith
No Man's Land by James H. Knight-Adkin
Champagne, 1914-15 by Alan Seeger
The Challenge of the Guns by A.N. Field
The Red Cross Spirit Speaks by John Finley
The Dawn Patrol by Paul Bewsher
Destroyers Off Jutland by Reginald McIntosh Cleveland
To a Soldier in Hospital by Winifred M. Letts
The Fallen Subaltern by Herbert Asquith
The Message by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
The Players by Francis Bickley

There were many others that I had highlighted passages in, but those were the poems I enjoyed the most, though some of them I had read many times before.

I enjoyed the notes at the end about each of the poets, a short biography many times of their military service. That was a nice addition.

If you want another good anthology of war poems, read World War One British Poets by Candace Ward. I enjoyed reading that one many years ago.

[Gen Giggles · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection appears at first glance like it would have a large number of Trench Poems in it. It does not. More than half the book is nationalistic poems about how great the war is and how bad the Germans are. There isn't a single poems condemning the war, though I've read a number of those, and the Trench Poems they do have are not the best examples, most of them seem to be by people not in the trenches. This collection definitely could have been much better.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection of various country's poetry about WWI. With the poems either siding with patriotism or trauma, the book gives a well-rounded account of the war. It even included poets who fought on the frontlines as well as women who worked as nurses or sent their sons off to fight. There were a few well known poets intermingled with poets who I had never heard of before.