[Planemad]

Hello all

After reading "The War Poets" An Anthology of Great War Poems, I decided to write my own poem set in the great war.
I have never wrote a Peom before now so tell me what you think,

Enjoy them

The young soldier

There once was a fellow so young but brave
He never spoke nor smiled
Now he’s gone to the grave

He wanted to back to Blighty
To see his lover and say goodbyes
He only pondered one thing
To write poetry or sing

Then before a push one day
He refused and happened to say
“I shall not kill and dear old Hun
For they ain’t done nothing wrong”

For that the CO said
“Right oh now fix bayonets”
The young boy then sat on the step
And began to pray

Whilst kneeling there in silence
The CO pulled his gun
With gun to brain he said
“Now no one shall speak of you again”

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Completed 30/7/11

Gone West

Gone West…
Today a dear old chap
Put on his flying cap
Stepped into his kite
And prepared for his flight
He headed to the front
Ready to hunt
Not a cloud in the sky
He must have wanted to die
From out of know where
Who should appear
But a Hun
Straight from the sun
Our chap put up a fight…
But for it was a sad sight
With him slumped down
His kite hit the ground,
And now we replace
With youth in his face,
Ready to die for King and Country.


Planemad

[Deutschmark]

Nicely done great read
If you could come up with a few hundred of them :OO
You could compose a book of war poems.

Deutschmark

[Planemad]

Nicely done great read
If you could come up with a few hundred of them :OO
You could compose a book of war poems.

Deutschmark

Nice Idea

I will write more, and a few hundred you gotta be kidding :lol:

Planemad

[Deutschmark]

Nice Idea
I will write more, and a few hundred you gotta be kidding :lol:
Planemad

No am not kidding at a few hundred hock:
Most that compose poem books make 2 times
The amount then you see in the book that they
Pick from, so if you where to do a book of one
Hundred you would need a few hundred to pick
The best from.

Deutschmark

[LeBigTed]

Hey Planemad,

Nice poems here, very nice, your first remind me "Le dormeur du Val" from Guillaume Appolinaire.

Your second is so nice, I really appreciate, Congratulations, nice work, keep it up ;o)

I am waiting now for your book

Ted

[AdamB]

Wow Planemad,

your a poet and you didnt know it - hey that rhyms I should be one

Only kidding, good luck with the war poem book

These are great,

AdamB

[KG64_Cnopicilin]

I like those

[Planemad]

Cheers Guys 8)

Planemad

[ton414]

Congratulations Planemad on your new facet of poet.
Unfortunately I know very little about poetry that is not Hispanic, it's very difficult to translate poetry, it must be read in its original language.

[Planemad]

I have finished "Gone West" See my first post ^^

Planemad

[Jambo]

Hi Planemad,

very good, very thoughtful and very sad indeed! S! 8)
Carry on! Waiting for more....

Jambo :wink:

[Planemad]

Hi Planemad,

very good, very thoughtful and very sad indeed! S! 8)
Carry on! Waiting for more....

Jambo :wink:

Cheers Jambo 8)

I will be writing some more... you can count on it

Planemad

[caldrail]

Interesting, although I notice the mix of british and american dialects don't mix easily.

One poem tells us that the poet doesn't want to kill because the Hun hadn't done anything. My grandfather gave me some histories of WW1 written back in the twenties. The opening chapters are full of German atrocities. The wicked Hun bayoneting pregnant french women in the intial advance, and such things.

How true that was is impossible for me to say. The point is that the Germans were seen very much as the enemy. You do hear anecdotes of different opinions, such as that football match played between both sides one christmas day.

It isn't just a matter of propaganda either. Whilst I'm sure the generals were only too keen to stress the wickedness of their enemy (as indeed was a staple of the home front as well as the trenches), there must have been a psychological need to see the enemy that way.

My reasoning is partly because of the dire conditions the men suffered to conduct the war, but also patriotism, a very strong factor in that era. Also, to see the enemy as essentially as human as yourselves opens the writer to doubts about his purpose (which understandably the poem underlines) which raises the not-to-be-discussed subjects of mutinies and concientious objectors, elements of which were subjected to summary military punishment throughout the war in order to preserve discipline.

From a personal persepective, it wasn't until my grandfather stuck bayonets into turkish defenders at gallipoli that he realised his enemy were as human as he was. There must have been a certain naivety involved. For some, it raised questions about how much humanity they retained. Once the war had progressed it wasn't unusual to see photographs of men smiling whilst standing among the bodies of the fallen.