Article published in "La Voix du Nord" in June 2014

Villeneuve-d’Ascq: Simon Davies pays a moving tribute to all the soldier poets of the First World War

Published on 21/06/2014

Franck Bazin

Like all young British citizens, Simon Davies discovered Wilfred Owen, one of the most well-known soldier poets, when he was a child. Destiny brought this lover of literature to just a few kilometres from the place where Owen was killed. Today, he pays tribute to him, as well as to some 2000 British poets of the First World War.

« The Hell where Youth and Laughter went » is the title that Simon Davies used for his anthology, adapted from a poem by Siegfried Sassoon. The work is a study of the war in its duration and the change in the morale of the English troops through the works of the poets, both fighting on the fronts and back home.

Simon Davies attempts to answer two questions: why so much poetry and why mainly in the trenches?

A form of recruitment

For the first question, he distinguishes two periods. From before the war until 1915, it was mainly those from the well-off classes who took up the pen: « The emphasis was mainly on the notion of Good versus Evil, and people expected a rapid war with the troops back home for Christmas. The poetry was a form of recruitment in newspapers or on posters. »

But, from 1915 onwards, following the battles of the Marne, of Ypres, the first use of gas attacks, with the soldiers bogged down in the trenches … the tone changed. The soldiers came to realise that those back in England had only a vague idea of the realities of fighting: « There was an exhibition in London that was supposed to show a reconstruction of life in the trenches. It was seen as a joke by the soldiers on leave! »

Accordingly, as a way of describing their daily lot, and often through the use of simple vocabulary, the Tommies wrote verse, sometimes on the back of an envelope. Some became famous names in the history of literature, like Owen, but many works were written by unknown soldiers, while other identified writers perished on the battlefields.

For the time being the book is only available to English speakers, though Simon Davies has not ruled out a French translation, even if the poetry will require an enormous effort of adaptation.

In the footsteps of Owen

It was written that Simon Davies would teach in the north of France and become a specialist in the soldier poets. This native of Kent (south-east of England) studied French and Latin at the University of Bristol, leading to a long-term stay in France. Thus, in 1989-1990, he was the English assistant at the Lycée Dupleix in Landrecies (Avesnois). He went back to Great Britain to complete his studies then returned to Valenciennes to work as a lecteur.

Wishing to become a teacher, he went back to his studies which eventually brought him to passing the agrégation (advanced teaching exam). Whilst seeking a subject for his Master’s dissertation, his French colleagues informed him of Wilfred Owen’s grave just a few kilometres from Landrecies. Their paths inevitably crossed and it was this dissertation that was at the origin of the book that Simon Davies has just published. Recruited as a teacher at the Ecole Centrale de Lille in 1999, he has been Head of the Language Department since 2000.