Impression Sketch
of an ill Rupert Brooke, meeting General Hamilton - By Jamie Mann
I
The Straits of
the Dardanelles, hangs like a by-word
For an unknown
outcome, as still the fight went on -
As water of a
Black sea that flows to Mediterranean -
A vital artery
for the allied power held by Turkey.
The Straits of
the Dardanelles, whose control could
Possibly persuade
Bulgaria, Romania or Greece,
To turn from
neutrality to allied armies - with action
Acting as
persuasion to turn Turkey from Germany.
What ways to turn
leaders of men from Ottoman
Empire, other
than a Constantinople coup d’état.
So bore an idea
of Lord of the Admiralty - Churchill -
To go against
Joffre's advice to wait ground troops.
Long in planning
through the winter month's moves
March's
battleships sailing directly into the straits.
Water against
land, boat against fort - Turks held
On - yet thinning
ammunitions, leading to ally delays.
Then might come
the time to turn to northern side
Of Straits - to a
peninsula called Gallipoli - eagerly
Churchill made
plans on paper, adding up numbers
Of men that might
make that break into the straits;
British
Territorial’s, New Zealanders and Australians.
So Egyptian
training troops of Oceania Australasia
Seemed the
perfect addition to all the solutions -
ANZAC men and
Zealand Army Corps from Lemnos,
Might break back
door landings, by Gulf of Saros.
II
Amid all this
build to organized chaos came one
Such figure, from
February civil days of planning -
Rupert Brooke who
heard news of 40 ships sent
To bomb the
Dardanelles on the twentieth day.
As an officer
Brooke joined assembly, to be told
They would sail
for the Mediterranean within a week,
To be back within
6 weeks - a link between Russian
Forces to cut
Constantinople would prove the break.
A poet's
preparations may involve kit inspection,
Along with a good
preparation of Greek - as myth
Entices eagerness
of a poet’s optimism - antiquity
So close - as a
warrior needs to return to a woman.
War can cancel
out all conflict gone before to make
Peace with old
loves - With king and Churchill eyes
Sets sail, like a
living poem of the Iliad - in breakfast's
End with solid
friends departs Brooke's Hood Battalion.
Cutting a heroic
figure in violet eyes, a last lunch sets
Eddie's goodbye -
Brooke by order of short hair sighed
Under a too small
sun helmet, the poet beats the path
To Avonmouth - as
a knight boards the Grantully Castle.
Armed with ladies
amulet, by delivery of a man friend -
A potent charm
for safe return - as mundane occupation
Ttakes on loading
mules and men - tiredness and a final
Note for Ka, states
personal path to gain Constantinople.
From Chantilly
Castle to shore acts out more goodbyes
Brooke was never
so happy, or tired - as Oc and Violet
Finally stood
ashore, to watch the gangway rise upon
The castle, that
finally carried their shining knight away.
III
Days for a hero
at sea are not always easy, as Brooke
Felt queasy -
only to gain sea legs by the bay of Biscay;
Beyond Gibraltar
Straits curving by a Spanish Coast,
By 4 March came
clouds of warm air and promises.
So how might it
all pan out for a poet, as he sailed,
To fight, charging
ashore at Dardanelles cutting down
Turkey enemies?
How might the rush of men about him,
Of New Zealanders
and wild Australians succeed?
Dreams of
Constantinople's crown upon his head sail
On - about an
African coast, to call on the port of Malta.
Under Violet's declarations
of love, Rupert Brooke
Might have felt
oddly full, along with works occupations.
While a hurried
poet's words of impetuous letters let out
Confessions -
perhaps as a man's warning knowing
no
Return - confessing
how good she was for him, yet his
Selfishness and
hatred of people would do her no good.
While a poet
knight might imagine personal survival -
To wear a Turkish
crown, balanced by taste of foreign
Dust, is prepared
by instructions for a posthumous life -
Line - for
friends Eddie and Dudley might clear up his life.
With Brooke's orders
for destruction of specific letters
To hide perhaps
unwanted secrets or open up other parts
Of his life
unknown - describes a watcher's movements
Under a grim
African dawn and sprawled sleeping stokers.
Still words
flowed in letters with thanks for handkerchiefs,
That might bind the
stumps of his bloodied legs in battle.
As officer of the
watch, he watched on 8 March as woken
Stokers nosily
moved ashore, for a rowdy day's leave.
With bookish tales
of comforts that Brooke might act
Out childhood
dreams, as a crusader of Malta - only to
Be left behind,
playing to French allies the Marseillaise
Over waters, as
they headed out for the Greek Lemnos.
Lemnos, the
destination assembly point for future
Assault - start
of March saw anchorage at Mudros Bay,
Along with
assembled battleships of Queen Elizabeth,
Nelson and
Agamemnon and the Russian boat Askold.
IV
A week unfolded
of assembled allies, across from isles
Of Greece which
could only furnish more big thoughts,
Of the ancients
alongside the modern - with powerful
Glasses mount
Olympus gave the misty sights of gods.
Rupert’s eager
eyes fell on the land of Attica - to make
Him feel 'he
could die' - as a poet somberly mourns own
Potential endings,
wishing others may have children.
With 4 a.m.
reveille, 18 March saw buckled readiness.
Armed with
provisions and revolvers and large errors
Of a breakfast -
made for a days ill feelings, as erroneous
Events began
Churchill’s naval assault on Straits forts,
Fails, as chain of
mines sinks French and British ships.
Ominous warnings
in the loss of surprises went past
Unheeded - as the
campaign then, should have ended
Went on, as Turk
and German reinforced their forts
Defenses, while
allies merely withdrew to regroup.
Another week of Lemnos
was followed as the Hood
Battalion sailed,
to land at Egypt for 2 March - landing
With tents
pitched out on the dirty sands of Port Said -
Relief for Brooke and others came with passes for Cairo.
In a whirl of war
tourism, officers posed beside camels
And pyramids - while Brooke, in Hawkers Bazaar, bought
Trinkets of some
kind - then, with 48-hour leave to expire
They returned to
camp, as Brooke began to fell queasy.
In routine of army
training, prompting a route march over
Desert sands, provided Brooke with sunstroke symptoms -
As headache,
diarrhoea and nausea came, a close friend
Set him safely up
in hotel Casino Place - yet duty called.
The next day was
platoon training of practice shooting;
Another man fell
ill - seen as the usual 'touch of the sun,'
That frequently afflicted
Brits in the tropics - so Brooke
Spent a sick
night in a tent, hoping for fresh, desert air.
By 2 April Rupert
Brooke was under awning of his tent -
Laying asleep
under a peak cap and sunglasses, with his
Mouth open - as caught in a photograph of Denis Brown,
While his
Division was reviewed by General Hamilton.
Brooke lay half
musing, under a flapping green canopy,
With desert air and
blankets warming him - growing fame
And some London friend's
of Churchill and Asquith had
Prompted
Hamilton's request to preserve this young man.
With his military
review complete Hamilton sat by Brooke;
Still the desert winds
of sand, blew about the poet's cot,
While Hamilton
offered the Brooke a job on the Queen
Elizabeth as part
of his personal staff, asking his reply.
Calmly behind his
dark glasses, Brooke stirred to say
'No thanks'. Hamilton
looked down at the extraordinarily
Handsome ill young
man - whose lips in consideration,
Wished to see this adventure through with his men.
While quite aware of his refusal to pass up the privileges
Offered to him,
Brooke felt bound to go on and through
With the landings of Dardanelles, shoulder to shoulder -
Then, with his
survival, he would then take up the offer.
As a poet, whose
type had been crowned by a King -
Rupert Brooke
looked wanly vulnerable to the General,
Who remarked how
an eye might then be kept on this
Very
distinguished Georgian - he then stood and left him.
by Jamie Mann.
Jones, N.,1999. Rupert
Brooke – Life, Death & Mythology. London. Richard Cohen Books. Ch
26-27.
Source: File:
Dardanelles. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. [online]
Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dardanelles> [Accessed: 4 April 2015].
Source: File:
Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign. From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [online] Available at:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_operations_in_the_Dardanelles_Campaign>
[Accessed: 4 April 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 4 April 2015).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1RupertBrooke
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