Bit of Ivory

You thought the last one was bitter? Try this one. . . (The final Latin line means, roughly, “It is sweet and meet to die for one’s country.”) Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) Bent double, like old beggars under sacks Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares […]

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Here’s another war poem– a bit more satirical, this time: All the Hills and Vales Along by Charles Sorley (1895-1915) ALL the hills and vales along Earth is bursting into song, And the singers are the chaps Who are going to die perhaps.   O sing, marching men,   Till the valleys ring again.   Give your gladness […]

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Armistice Day At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, an Armistice was signed, ending what had been the bloodiest war ever fought. I’ve never paid much attention to World War I (or the Great War, as it was then called– the people having no knowledge that another such […]

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