war poetry
Scottie Bowman (bowman@mail.indigo.ie)
Tue, 18 Aug 1998 08:46:48 +0000
`...If you look at a lot of that poetry - be it WWI or WWII -
the message is literally `play the game and you can't lose'
(there's one particular one whose name escapes me which
compares war with a game of cricket)...'
I wish Camille could tell us who this versifier was. Was he
a relative of Don Bradman's ? Certainly the English poets of
either of the two wars - from Owen & Grenfell of the first to
Douglas & Keys of the second - led the way in showing war
as it actually is through the disillusioned eyes of men who
had personally experienced its brutality.
I can't speak for America or Australia where the immediate reality
of war rarely impinged on civilian life. But I can for Britain
where I lived as a boy & young teenager throughout these years.
Believe me, while there was a great deal of intense patriotism there
was very little inclination or opportunity to view the war as
a surrogate for sport.
Scottie B.