Poem ~ Charlie Sorley: Officer of Poetry - Sunday, 17 January 1915

 

Source: File: Charles Hamilton Sorley in military uniform.jpg, 2015. Charles Sorley, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 January 1915. [online] Available at:<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sorley >[Accessed: 17 January 2015].

  

i  A Boy's Life

In Aberdeen of 1895 were born male twins,

William Ritchie Sorley and his elder brother,

Of some moments - Charles Hamilton Sorley. 

To Powis House, a mansion of the old town

Came this young family, with boys aged one -

A wild windy placed looking over the North

Sea - their home surrounded with fields,

Which were filled with the life of the wild -

And not so far away a station - for the boys

Led to mystery kingdoms down the tracks.

By age of five, now joined by a sister, the boys

Experienced another move - to Cambridge

Where their father was to become a university

Professor  - so the twins’ education began -

To centre on games of marching and singing.

Both in English and French - their sources,

Being the Pilgrims Progress and the Bible -

Along with ballads of Scott, Blake and bard

Of Shakespeare - all before a school career.

The older, Charlie Sorley, joined as a day boy,

At the King’s college choir school - happy

In everything - everywhere making adventures.

As twins, the boys looks and nature differed,

But a separation from his brother was uneasy;

For six weeks William fell ill with Scarlet Fever.

ii School Life

Aged 13 in 1908 Charlie gained a scholarship

With Marlborough College - separation again

Took him from William, then at another school.

Charlie by 1910 moved into the senior house,

Gaining delight in Alderley library - his resource.

This move Charlie had done with a friend

A boy who sadly, after a short illness, died.

Charlie was said to have taken this quietly.

With favoured runs across rain filled country,

He took solitary walks and to share in sports -

With iron views on right and wrong Charlie

Gave himself voluntary, for breaking of rules.

By December 1913 came yet another move

In education, with a scholarship for University

College Oxford – so Charlie agreed to leave

Marlborough early, an ending he would miss.

A habit for Charlie had been to write down

What was in his mind – early on this had been

In Forms of heroic verse, in a style of Scott –

The growing Charlie though, became reserved,

With his family knowing less of his activities.

  

Unknown to them he took part in a debating

Society  -making speeches and interactions

With the Malburian – the school magazine.

For a time his heroic verse tuned to shockers;

He told in dormitories within the dead of night.

Next in a move from lower to upper sixth,

Charlie gained leave to travel to Germany

First completing commitments to the Malburian

Preserving them for a family archive -Charlie

Sent batches of compositions to his mother,

On regular occasions, until June 1915.

iii  University Life

Now the twins were 19, when young Charlie,

On 20 January 1914, travelled away to Schmerin

In Mecklenberg – where he stayed with family

Of a lawyer – Charlie happily learned German,

And gained new friends  - with spring and April,

Charlie moved to Jena to become a university

Student - summer came in hot June, his family

Visited, for a stay in Jena and a tour of Thuringia.

During the Saturday evening of their weekend

Stay, Charlie led them through a town square -

Where men and women gathered about tables,

Under flared lights, with singing and drinking –

These people, who Charlie believed as having

Stupid expressions. The next day in climbing

A hill, they saw again such German habits.

They sat and looked across Jena - Charlie could

Not make out the German student who would

Spend two years in fighting, in folly drunkenness -

Only in the third year, did such students work -

To get though their exams - then with July 1914,

Came time for Charlie to trace his steps home.

A walking tour was planned, with a friend across

The Moselle valley, to join his brother William,

In Schwern  - in order to return home together

But this plan was never to happen - on Sunday

2 August, Charlie and friend were at Trier,

When suddenly arrested - to be placed in separate

Cells for a day – reasons for detainment given,

Due to their not wearing a hat – Charlie informed

The officer, such was a habit for people in Britain. 

Those long hours were relieved, by conversation,

With a soldier prisoner in the next cell - speaking

Through a knot hole while keeping awareness

Of the sentry – as tourists they were released,

And ordered to leave the country – so Charlie

Returned by way of Belgium – through Liege 

By train - as he drowsed on Monday afternoon,

Saw soldiers wearing waterloo hats on a platform.

By Brussels then Antwerp, Charlie shared

The problems of gaining passage homeward –

Finally to get aboard a boat, the British Consul

Had chartered - by 6 August Charlie made it home

Still hatless with a Jena beer mug and sandals.

  

iv Army Life

With hardly time to take any breath on 7 August,

Charlie applied to take an army commission,

With the university board of military studies –

Yet with nothing happening Charlie, in Oxford,

Made out another application to join up.

Charlie considered of joining as a private -

He believed to be 'the really heroic thing to do' -

When he found the Gazette displayed his name

For a new service battalion - the 7th Battalion

Of Suffolk Regiment - to be a second Lieutenant.

On that same day, came orders for him to report

At Churn, a training camp on the Berkshire Downs.

By third week of September he arrived At Shorncliffe

Situated above town of Folkstone - learning history

Of the 'Old Dozen' - his regiment with all its traditions.

Amid letters of 1915 - the date uncertain - yet written

In mid January - Lieutenant Charles Sorley wrote

From Shorncliffe, to say of alarming monotony,

Of his existence - how staleness affects the men

And officers alike - a reported lack of efficiency 

Meant they were unlikely to move for a time.

Days went swift but with nothing to show - living

For a future turned to the past - in habit of old men.

'War is chasm in time,' Charles defied the media's

Habit to claim 'war is ennobling purge' - only to cause

Unhappiness and lack of comforts - papers should

He felt, be muzzled - any illusion of war as splendour

Would need to be purged, after the end of the war.

Any leave was in abeyance, despite the inactivity -

He felt for his friend, with Oriel men mostly in khaki.

Charles made envy with his advantage of working

With his brain - his own felt stagnant - even any will

To learn French was absent - his mind stayed shut.

by Jamie Mann

 Anon., 1919. The Letters of Charles Sorley with a Chapter on Biography.

 Cambridge University Press.  Chapter 1 Biographical.

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Poem ~ Vera Loves Roland - Sunday, 6 December 1914

 

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

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Video - Robert Graves as himself. "Man in the mirror"

Interesting clip shared to us from Jim Clark @greatpoets. Thanks for this, very interesting footage.  Click on link below...

http://youtu.be/JcJXrfwUiS4 

Poem ~ Graves: The Anti-War Soldier - Sunday, 22 November 1914

Source: File: Robert Grave.jpg, 2014. WW1 poet Robert Graves' son: How war shaped my father's life.30 July 2014. [online] (updated July 30 2014)  Available at: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28427874>Accessed: 22 November 2014].

As July 1914 drew to a close,

Robert Graves turned 19.

In his desire to be a writer,

He did not relish the idea

Of three years study at Oxford.

With wounds already gained,

From Charterhouse -

Graves had grown into youth,

With apparent non-acceptance,

By some -

The experiences of his years,

Had prompted Robert to turn

To stay close with closer friends.

Conflicts had weighed in him;

He had lost religion,

And questioned the family ideal,

Yet he saw Christ as a perfect man,

While he remained,

A good brother and faithful son.

While founded in creativity,

Robert had both a temper,

And tendency to depression.

As war broke out in August,

Grave travelled to meet

His mother in North Wales.

Where, at this family gathering,

Many among of them were ill.

News came in fits and starts,

Along with many stories,

Of Belgium atrocities,

At which Robert felt angry.

Bullying from an enemy,

Reflected what he had suffered

At early school -

And ideas of warfare horrified him.

Yet might he - should he, join up?

If he did then –

It would at least delay Oxford,

Just for a few months –

A short army career,

Could offer some desirable relief.

So by one Friday came a decision,

Robert Graves would join up.

Yet further advice was given,

That he might take up

A commission.

A friend, by name of More,

Made a telephone call

To a keen adjutant, of the

Royal Welch Fusiliers.

Eagerly he told of Robert’s

Family connections -

By marriage into the family

Was Admiral Poore and of course,

Robert’s own time in officer

Training corps, at Charterhouse.

So came an immediate invite,

For Graves to come ‘right along.’

12 August – on a Wednesday,

Robert Graves stepped out,

Onto a carriage – a focus of pride

For his family, who watched

And waved as he departed,

For Wrexham and Welch Fusiliers.

In taking up his service,

At the start of war,

Robert did not consider

Gratitude for self-sacrifice,

Or thoughts like Brookes’

Idea of ‘Awoken Youth.’

Yet pride was an infection,

That took strong hold of him -

He caught regimental tradition,

Reflected, as he opened up

A leather bound ledger -

Whose account of the fusiliers

Described their attack orders

At Redan Fort in Sebastopol –

Yet he gained some awkwardness,

In having to give his orders,

To veterans of other wars.

With three week training,

Saw Graves sent

On detachment, to interment

Camp for aliens at Lancaster.

With his mood turning bleaker,

He was in charge of some

Special Reservists, whose

Boredom led them to seduce

The local girls – which rallied

Against this officer’s

Puritanical beliefs.

September drew into October,

And his desire grew, to join

Some kind of fight in France -

Still any move evaded him.

Expectations of hard drill,

Back in Wrexham,

Was not in sight - he remained

In Lancaster, guarding

Civilian prisoners of war.

The Lancaster barracks,

Graves described

As Musty, fusty and dusty.

Being based at a disused

Wagon works, with him

In charge of restless reservists,

Who daily made escapes,

In darkness, over a bare wall.

Then 20 October gave his return

To Wrexham, for frantic training -

On that day at Red Branch House

His family found him taller,

Growing from his experiences.

Then his visit to Charterhouse

In uniform – swept away

Old, ill emotions, replaced by

Gentlemanly respect.

Then news came in of casualty lists.

Robert wondered

Why he had joined -

Still he held anti-war principles.

There had been no patriotism

Nor sentiment.

In signing to the king’s forces.

Conflict stirred in Robert’s

Conscience,

Between gentleman’s duty

And anti – war emotions.

In Grave’s further delay,

To be sent to the French Front,

Came reasons,

About his appearance,

And continual neglect for his kit.

Being called to the orderly room,

By army regular, adjutant

‘Tibs’ Crawshay

 Found them at odds -

Graves being given orders,

To look more like a soldier -

A report from commander,

Of the company, had said

He was ‘unsoldierlike.’

Writing of himself,

As ‘Despondent at the depot,’

Graves remained, as he watched,

Battalions leave for France.

Yet still praised by his parents

Robert was still their only family,

Member in uniform –

Other distant relatives,

Were in the forces -

With members on both sides.

The balance being,

Ten fighting for England,

For Germany another ten.

One cousin of Graves had seen

Active service;

Kanard Von Fabur du faur,

Fighting in a Bavarian regiment.

While Captain Cecil Graves

Had been wounded at Mons,

During a rear-guard retreat.

Yet any merit faded, with news

As a member was lost at sea,

And another killed at Ypres.

As slow November drew to an end

Robert Graves wrote he might

At any time have two hours

Notice prior to leaving for France.

by Jamie Mann.

Graves, R.P., 1987. Robert Graves - The Assault Heroic - 1895-1926. Elizabeth Sifton Books, Viking Penguin Inc.  Book 4 chapter 1

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