WW2 poetry

With the coming 75th anniversary of the final battles at Cassino in mind, I add here a poem - named Lacrimae Liri (Tears of the Liri) - written by my father's comrade, Nicholas Mosley, MC, platoon commander in E Company of the London Irish Rifles, when he was in hospital after being wounded on the morning of 16 May 1944. It is included in Nicholas' war time memoir "A Time at War".

I was fortunate enough to meet Nicholas a couple of times, once with my father, to share memories of some of their friends, including Eddie Mayo, who died at Casa Sinagoga dring the LIR's assault on the Gustav Line. Nick kindly gave us permission to include the poem as the foreword of my father's book about his war time service.

Quis Separabit.

The cornfields wave toward the sky.

And from above the clouds reply

With smiles of gentle sleepiness.

Below, the summer sun’s caress

Lies softly on the silent plains.

And deep within the sunken lanes,

The trailing thorns hang down to dream

And slowly in the silver stream,

The leaves of weary willows drift

And sway to lazy winds that lift

The heavy heads of drooping trees

With tenderness of silken breeze

But Stranger, Stranger, don’t you see?

Behind each crimson-tinted tree,

Within those hollow, haunted walls

And torn upon each thorn that falls

So gently, gently, groping down

Beside the silent fields that crown

The sleepy summer’s brittle glare

With ripples in the sun-swept air?

Stranger, don’t you see that there

The devil’s terror-laden breath

Suffuses all with taint of death?


That here one summer long ago

The silent lanes did slowly flow

With drops of dying hearts that bled,

And drained the dying to the dead?

That here, vain tears of frozen grief

Once trembled on each withered leaf

And hung from every tearing thorn;

And out amongst the golden corn,

Blind eyes did strain in vain to see

The light that mocked their agony.

 

I think that 'The Soldiers At Lauro' is very moving- I haven't seen any other Spike Milligan poems in World War 2 anthologies so far.
Spike used to take part in the 'Poetry and Jazz in concert ' events from 1961 around Britain . By 1969 there had been 250 performances. Some poets read about war, such as Vernon Scannell , but not sure if Spike ever drew on his war service during his readings.

 

Great poem , bexley84. Thank you for posting it . Will look for Nicholas Mosley' s 'A Time At War'. Could you post here or message me with details of your father's book? Regards

 

I have updated the World War 2 poetry blog with the poem 'Lidice' by C Day Lewis from 1943.
Lidice was a Czech village caught up in the reprisals the Germans ordered following the death of Reinhard Heydrich , who died from wounds incurred some two weeks after an assassination attempt in Prague on 27th May 1942.
On 10th June 1942 the male inhabitants were massacred , the women and children were transported from Lidice, many to meet their deaths in concentration camps. The village was destroyed and German radio broadcast the fact to the world.
Have already started on a follow up post with more poetry about Lidice
WorldWar2poetry

'Lidice'


Not a grave of the murdered for freedom
but grows seed for freedom- Walt Whitman


" Cry to us ,murdered village while you grieve
Ashes raw on history makes us understand
What freedom asks of us . Strengthen our hands
Against the arrogant dogmas that deprave
And have no proof but death as their command

Must the innocent blood for ever to remedy
These fantastic fits that tear mankind apart?
The pangs we felt from you atrocious hurt
Promise a time when even the killer shall see
His sword is aimed at his own naked heart."

Cecil Day Lewis- From his collection, 'Word All Over' 1943.

 

Thanks... here's a link to a soft copy of the book...I know not the same:
The story of London Irish Colour Sergeant Edmund O’Sullivan

When my father met Nick 62 years after they had last met in Austria in 1945, he still thought he was a "scruffy officer".

 

Thank you Richard

Will read 'The story of London Irish Colour ' -appreciate the link. Just seen that it is the tenth anniversary of your father's passing. Seems a fitting time to start looking at his book.

I am sure that many years ago I read one of Nicholas Mosley's books about his family upbringing .
And also read his book on Julian Grenfell, who was killed in action in World War 1- most known for his poem ' Into Battle'.
Have treated myself to a kindle version of 'A Time At War'.

The Oasis Trust , who were heavily involved in collecting poetry and publishing Forces poetry from the North Africa campaign also brought out an anthology titled ' From Oasis into Italy- War poems and diaries from 'African and Italy 1940-1946' edited by one Victor Selwyn. I am trying to get hold of a copy. I will check to see if Nicholas Mosley's poem made it into this anthology.

Regards

 

Thank you Richard

Will read 'The story of London Irish Colour ' -appreciate the link. Just seen that it is the tenth anniversary of your father's passing. Seems a fitting time to start looking at his book.

Regards[/QUOTE]

Michael,

Thank you - it was actually 10 years today, 24th May, on the evening I actually returned from a LIR visit to Cassino... I got the chance to show him a video of the current day pipers parading to Casa Sinagoga playing the 'Garryowen' before he died.....

best wishes

 

Richard,

Glad that you had the final opportunity to talk to your father about the LIR . Have got a lot out of reading 'The story of London Irish Colour' so far. The section about Irish history, and your father's upbringing in London in the 1930's certainly held my interest. Grateful to be introduced to his book.

Having a quick look at 'The Guardian ' obituary , there seemed to be no mention of Nicholas Mosley's poetry.

Nicholas Mosley obituary

Very curious to see if he wrote any more poems, and had any of them published besides 'Tears of the Lin' above. Will check the 'Oasis' anthologies and report back.

Regards

Michael

 

Manged to get hold of the anthology 'From Oasis Into Italy-War Poems & Diaries From Africa & Italy 1940-1946'( 1983)
This poem was written by John Jarmain, officer with the 51st Highland Division anti tank unit, served in North Africa and
was later killed in action during the Normandy campaign on 22nd June 1944. His work is not often included in anthologies.

Really enjoy the simplicity and sense of solitude that comes over in this poem.

Ring Plover at El Alamein

"Nothing grows on the sand-flats
Beside the salt late at El Alamein ,
The water is still and rust pink
And the flat sand rim is crusted with salt.
Beyond the white dunes and the shallow beach
In the brilliant tideless sea;
Behind is the endless sand.

Yet here at the dead lake's side
I saw a solitary ring plover-
Small and plump and coloured,
Black and white and read,
Surprising as a painted wooden toy,
He and I alone had the pale shore
I still and watching him.
The bird busy as an absorbed small boy;
Small and pre-occupied, always hurrying,
As if he were always a little behind
So I have seen him on busy beaches of the North
Hunting with the dunlin, between the fishing-boats
And the nets hung on poles to dry
Along the shores of the Moray Firth.

But like memory the quick wings flickered,
Left momentarily a white arc in the air,
And he was over the dunes, out to sea,
I was alone on the sand-flats
Beside the rust-pink water"

 

Have updated the World War Poetry website with some thoughts about Sidney Keyes , who died whilst serving in Tunisia in 1943, just before his 21st birthday.

Hoping to get a chance to read more of John Jarmain's work later this week at the British Library and at the National Poetry Library.

Sidney Keyes – World War Poetry

 

Latest update to the World War poetry blog features the life and work of the Hungarian poet Miklos Radnoti , who was executed in 1944 whilst being made to serve in a unit for Jewish labourers.
WorldWar2poetry

Here is Dame Judi Dench reciting Radnoti's 1944 poem 'I can not tell' from 1976.

 

Have written some more about Miklos Radnoti

Miklos Radnoti (1909- 1944) – World War Poetry

I was pleased to find an anthology at the National Poetry Library - 'The Colonade of Teeth- Modern Hungarian Poetry, edited by George Gomori & George Szirtes, from 1996, which included ten poems by Radnoti.

" I write about everything-write even for you, up there,

So that flying you make know of my life and of how I fare

When between the rows of houses, blown up and tumbling down,

The bloodshot light of the moon reels drunkenly around

When the city squares bulge, all of them terror stricken,

And the planes keep coming on, then disappear, and then

Swoop, like jabbering madness, down from the sky again”

From the Second Eclogue, a dialogue between a bomber pilot and a poet, written in April 1941

 

Have been looking at poetry from the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 : Leon Zdislaw Stroinski , born 1921, was killed fighting the Germans in Warsaw on 16th August 1944 . Have uploaded his prose poem 'Warsaw' , about life under German occupation. Am working on longer piece and trying to find other poets who took part in the Uprising . There seems little published by Stroinski in English. He died young and possible that there is not a great deal of his work that has survived.

Have found a reference to Stroinski being jailed after himself and two other poets placed a wreath by a statue of Copernicus in Warsaw on 25th May 1943.


WorldWar2poetry: Leon Zdzislaw Stroinski 1921- 1944 'Warsaw'

 

Have done an expanded piece about Leon Zdzislaw Stroinski which includes what I could find out about the incident of 25th May 1943 at the statue of Copernicus

Leon Stroinski 1921-1944 -Poet of the Warsaw Uprising – World War Poetry