War Poems

War Poems.

Leafing through a book of poems on the First World War (gathering dust for a long time) I noticed that Francis Ledwidge wasn't mentioned anywhere, although W.B. Yeats got more than a few lines included and rightly so. Some of the best and most powerful poems ever written touch on the above, though I can't say that I deliberately seek them out. Only a few stick in the mind.

Alan Seeger's "Rendezvous" or John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields", of note, while the old school books had more than their fair share, commit to memory or else! The anti-war movement of the 60s and the contemporary ballad scene have contributed any number of war poems and for getting a really powerful message across it's hard to beat Dylan or Steve Earle. Try "Dixieland/Steve Earle" or "Masters of War/Bob Dylan". Many others.

Photo: Dangan Church and Summerhill in the distance.