A Noble Cause?

A major consequence of the First World War was the number of British soldiers feeling the need to express themselves through poetry, especially in the trenches in France. Indeed, more than 2000 poets have been recorded, from the most well-known, such as Wilfred Owen, who was killed in Ors just one week before the Armistice on 4th November 1918, to anonymous poets writing just a few lines of verse before dying in combat.

At the outbreak of the war in 1914, the conflict was seen as a fight between Good and Evil. The war was expected to be short and the troops to return home for Christmas. Accordingly, the war at this time served as a call to arms; a means to encourage men to sign up in a struggle for “Liberty”, a term which was often used. For example, in his poem entitled “Youth’s Consecration”, John William Streets cries, “O Liberty, at thy command we challenge Death”, whilst finishing with the declaration that:

Lovers of life, we pledge thee Liberty

And go to death, calmly, triumphantly.

The tone of these poems was evidently to evolve from 1915 onwards as the conflict transformed into a long war of attrition in the trenches, marked by terrible and bloody battles.