Humour and Simple Pleasures

In the midst of the atrocities and violence of combat, the soldiers of the Great War still sometimes managed to find something to smile about in their poetry. It may be surprising to discover such humour in situations where we would least expect to find it. On the other hand, and as the Roman philosopher Seneca once pointed out, « It better befits a man to laugh at life than to lament over it ».

Some humorous verses also served a double purpose of giving us an insight into the soldiers’ daily routines, as the lines in the poem « New Army Education » demonstrate:

I learned to wash in shell-holes, and to shave myself in tea,

While the fragments of a mirror did a balance on my knee.

In the same poem, we discover the different uses of a bayonet:

I learned to use my bayonet according, as you please,

For a bread-knife or a chopper, or a prong for toasting cheese

In his poem « The Soldier’s Cigarette », Harold Beckh points out the little comforts that enable the men to forget the war for a short time. In this case, a cigarette can provide welcome relief:

When meals are few and far between,

When spirit’s ebb has set,

When comrades fall, and Death’s gates call,

Who’s there but cigarette?

For others … it’s a nice hot pot of tea. In his poem, “A Pot of Tea”, Robert Service shows how the very act of making tea takes on some magical aspect. The whole process of brewing is elaborated, beginning with adding the leaves to the mess-tin, “by the brazier’s rosy gleam”. Even inhaling the fumes is enough to lift the spirits, for “The very breath of it is ripe with cheer”, and when the time comes actually to drink it, “It bucks you up like anythink, just seems to touch the spot”. Such is its importance, that it takes precedence over the fighting and is drunk around the fire in celebration:

To-night, by Fritz's campfire, won't I 'ave a gorgeous brew

(For fightin' mustn't interfere with Tea).

To-night we'll all be tellin' of the Boches that we slew,

As we drink the giddy victory in Tea.