Source: File: Vera Brittain.jpg, Somerville
and the Great War. [online] (updated
March 4, 2014 by College in War) Available at: <http://blogs.some.ox.ac.uk/thegreatwar/2014/03/04/march-1914-vera-brittain-is-awarded-an-exhibition-2/> Accessed: 6 December 2014].
Source: File: Roland Leighton.jpg, Somerville
and the Great War. [online] Available at: <http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWleightonR.htm> Accessed: 6 December 2014].
December marked the passing
Of five months of war,
Five months since an August day,
When one young writer,
Found tennis give way to war.
By journal and by letters,
Marked Vera Brittain’s memories,
Of Edward her younger brother.
And a love affair for another.
As everywhere, on a small island,
The effects of war arrived,
In Provincial Buxton.
As German residents fled,
Edward Brittain discovered
His school camp disbanded,
For important war office needs.
Only a few weeks before this
Matters were different for Vera.
On a visit to Edwards house,
At Uppingham School,
Where on a hot July evening
She took a walk in darkness,
In the quad with Edward.
In a habit of affection Vera
Mocked her brother -
Only to find a bright vision,
In his friend Roland Leighton.
Whose young frame, wore
A colour Sergeant’s Uniform.
With both boys taking part
In the Officer Training Corps,
Even when there was little sign
Of war - then with friend
Victor,
These three Musketeers
Were to arrive in Aldershot,
For end of term manoeuvres
Some short weeks changed
All about Vera, as she recorded
In her journal – the end of a pen,
Drawing the declaration of war -
Noting its opening as a nuisance,
For her optimistic future plans.
As an endemic temperature,
That starts slowly to pass,
As a contagion into an epidemic -
Of a fever, fuelled by news,
Leaking into the provinces -
As when Edward witnessed
An incident – a German waiter
At the Palace hotel, thrown over
A wall, in absent brutality.
For people with shared respect,
Now found birth dictating
Distrust and prompting hate -
Then Edward was warned
Not to try and join up in war,
As he was still below military age.
Yet Tradition for heroism,
And expectations to be a man,
Were not so easily shunned,
From Vera’s brother’s mind.
And what of Roland Leighton?
Who wrote in new friendship,
To the sister of his old friend -
His letters soon told of plans
For him to get a commission,
Within a Norfolk regiment.
In a move to September,
Vera notes how Namur
And Liege have fallen to hands
Of an enemy and whose push
At Mons, ended in a retreat -
Still the papers stayed positive.
Further events brought closer,
A hint of reality with Red Cross
Depots on Buxton’s doorstep.
Reality could be countered
With news from Roland -
The fact was his imperfect sight,
Resulted in commission’s refusal -
A fact he had quite concealed
From her –but determination said
That ‘Come what may I will go.’
The vow fed Vera’s scepticism.
With tennis games quietly faded,
Autumn days called for London
Visits for Vera and Edward -
With persistence paid, her brother
Gained reluctant permission of father,
For him to train as an army officer.
In clear skied September -
Crowded London gave a shudder -
Hearing of Marne Victories
With hopeful headlines of sellers,
For news of allies making advances.
Then there was always Roland,
Who in Vera’s mind found
Golf a game of fortune, as she
Came upon a fairy ring -
In which she stood and vowed,
That V an R might be lovers -
Daring to think they might marry,
She allowed herself to glance,
Forward to see a union in five years.
As Rheims in France sank,
In desperate ruins they talked,
Without being feared,
Of a future annihilated -
From Roland came renewed
News of another chance,
To gain a Norfolk Commission.
His letter’s held Vera closer,
Yet his pessimist suggestion
Of ‘Scholastic vegatation,’
Worked to hurt a little in Vera’s dream.
Roland’s confession,
Of an opening militaristic mind,
Found fascination in war’s idea -
Horrible, ennobling and beautiful.
Where he stood, placed her
Beyond his border -
When he had confessed before
The situation of war,
And his professed Feminism.
As a woman Vera advised
How men gain exhilaration
Of war - as women
Gain all of its dreariness.
With October’s cooling breath,
Vera’s boys still fought
To find their part in youthful fight,
To leave their girl behind -
In complex of inferiority.
Finally it happened,
When Roland gained his place,
Within his chosen Regiment.
How his penned poem
‘I walk Alone,’ made reflection
Of how Vera felt,
Heading to Somerville College -
As the three Musketeers,
Marched to another direction.
As studies beckoned, Vera Brittain
Closed her mind to thoughts
Of war – a new thrill held her now,
But in the background came
Antwerp’s siege, followed by Ypres
Desperate battles - yet she did
Not quit her studious eyes.
With transparent blinkers
She saw Edward stand in Oxford’s
Officer Training Corps -
With Roland, as Second Lieutenant
Took to the Territorials.
As a lover of new found studies,
She wrote happily to Roland,
To say of her excitement to be
Somewhere where work
Was demanded of her, rather
Than her being a fool, asking
For such work tasks.
Time was soon spent,
Snatching spaces with Edward
In cafes - her brother, young
Edward who gained sisterly
Attention in his uniform,
Of Second Lieutenant.
Came admission of her
Private admiration for his
Half sad eyes, framed by dark
Arching eyebrows -imaged
Her minds photography -
Of his tallness and his
Long, admirable hands.
Brother and sister say goodbye
About a place, where within
Ten years, stood a memorial -
Made of names of fallen men.
Vera’s thoughts lingered on him,
During that November camp,
As rain fell onto Oxford,
Turning country lanes to mud.
So Vera, from that four, sat alone -
Fixed in studies - in avoidance
Was knowledge of another
Female student - whose brother,
Was at the front - nimbly
Avoiding her for the whole term.
So hardly aware of love's seduction,
Came to her Roland Leighton -
On the Friday of 10 July 1914,
Conversing through a window,
When Edward told Vera
In her visit to Uppingham -
She could not come inside,
With fellows being in states of dress.
In that hour of darkness,
They met and walked in the quad.
Lit windows lit their steps,
When Edward stopped by one
And tapped the glass -
Calling to his friend of a visitor
Quite wanting to meet him.
The window opened,
Vera stepped forward to lean in.
On meeting Roland Leighton,
Vera saw dark, expressive eyes,
Within what seemed a plain face.
She teased -
He said,
On collecting his prizes,
He might think of her,
As he tripped and fell
To make a fool of himself.
Within that brief moment,
Time between them was set.
by Jamie Mann.
Brittain, V., 1982. Testament of
Youth. Virago Press Limited.
Ch. 2 Ch. 3
Bishop, A., 1981. Chronicle of
Youth - Vera Brittain's War Diary 1913-1917. Victor Gollancz Limited. 1914
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered
No comments:
Post a Comment