Tuesday, 5 August 2014

Poem ~ Storm of War Has Broken - Wednesday, 5 August 1914


So to the second day when new policies are born,
While that foreign policy of brutal aggression
Bares the question ‘will might or right prevail?'
In an unravelling of a European fight.

Irrevocably comes the 'dread decision of the sword,'
'The storm of war has broken.'
So starts the first phase and catchphrases of war -
Still this is more than a mere English war.

More than headings of ‘England’s Declaration.’
Remember Wales, remember Scotland, remember Ireland...
On the back of uncertainty rides outrage -
Germany villainy is made by sinking of a British mine-layer
And chasing of a cruiser even before a declaration of war.

But doubts of this are raised by other reports – so what is truth?
And if so what was a British mine-layer up to?
The 'fog of war' has fallen over a placid brooding sea.
Still the Kaiser claims a necessity to invade Luxembourg,
And cut across Belgium's neutral territory.

In calm irony, advertisers in newspapers make claim for,
‘The shortest and most comfortable route to North Germany.’
This makes one think that perhaps the territorial army
Should book ahead for their tickets,
In time for a quick remedy and a perhaps Berlin holiday.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon., 2014. Daily Telegraph August 5 1914. The Telegraph, [online] 5 Aug. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11004294/Daily-Telegraph-August-5-1914.html [Accessed: 5th August 2014].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 5 August 2014).



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