Killed the First Day of the Somme -- Alfred Ratcliffe -- April 5, 2017

On 01-July-2016, I missed the opportunity to mark the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.  More British soldiers died on that day than on any other day in history.  I thought to make up for it, I would write about some of the poets who died that day.  There were a lot.

I can't find much information about Alfred Victor Ratcliffe except that he went to Cambridge, was a friend of Rupert Brooke and was in the West Yorkshire Regiment.

The image is from the movie The Battle of the Somme.

June Song

It's sweet to love, ah, very sweet
But then, God knows,
The thorn climbs swift to tear the hand
That loves the rose
But if the heart's dear blood shall touch
The gathering flower,
It will but make a redder rose
A rosier hour. 

 This is the last entry of this series.  Many poets died in the war.  I may write about them later. 

Killed the First Day of the Somme -- Henry Field -- March 1, 2017

On 01-July-2016, I missed the opportunity to mark the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.  More British soldiers died on that day than on any other day in history.  I thought to make up for it, I would write about some of the poets who died that day.  There were a lot.

I can't find much information about Henry Field.

The image is from the movie The Battle of the Somme.

Above the shot-blown trench he stands,
Tall and thin against the sky;
His thin white face, and thin white hands,
Are the signs his people know him by.
His soldier’s coat is silver barred
And on his head the well-known crest.
Above the shot-blown trench he stands,
The bright escutcheon on his breast,
And traced in silver bone for bone
The likeness of a skeleton.

Killed the First Day of the Somme -- Gilbert Waterhouse -- February 5, 2017

On 01-July-2016, I missed the opportunity to mark the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.  More British soldiers died on that day than on any other day in history.  I thought to make up for it, I would write about some of the poets who died that day.  There were a lot.

Gilbert Waterhouse was an architect who served in the Second Battalion of the Essex Regiment.  He was reported wounded and missing on the first day of the battle.  His body was recovered after the battle.

I had trouble finding examples of his work. 

The image is from the movie The Battle of the Somme.

SONNET

Coming in splendor thro' the golden gate 

Of all the days, swift passing, one by one, 

Oh, silent planet, thou hast gazed upon 

How many harvestings, dispassionate? 

Across the many-furrowed fields of Fate, 

Wrapt in the mantle of oblivion, 

The old, gray, wrinkled Husbandman has gone, 

Sowing and reaping, lone and desolate— 

The blare of trumpets, rattle of the drum, 

Disturb him not at all—He sees, 

Between the hedges of the centuries, 

A thousand phantom armies go and come, 

While Reason whispers as each marches past, 

"This is the last of wars,—this is the last 1"

Lieut. Gilbert Waterhouse.

Killed the First Day of the Somme -- Will Streets -- January 5, 2017

On 01-July-2016, I missed the opportunity to mark the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.  More British soldiers died on that day than on any other day in history.  I thought to make up for it, I would write about some of the poets who died that day.  There were a lot.

Will Streets served in the Sheffield Pals, first in Egypt, then on the Western Front.  By the time of the Battle of the Somme, he was a sergeant.  On the first day, he was wounded and reported missing.  His body turned up ten months later.  His poems were published later in 1917 in a book, The Undying Splendour.

The image is from the movie The Battle of the Somme.

April Evening: France, 1916. 

0 sweet blue eve that seems so loath to die,
Trailing the sunset glory into night,
Within the soft, cool strangeness of thy light,
My heart doth seem to find its sanctuary.
The day doth verge with all its secret care,
The thrush is lilting Vespers on the thorn ;
In Nature’s inner heart seems to be born
A sweet serenity ; and over there
Within the shadows of the stealing Night,
Beneath the benison of all her stars
Men, stirr’d to passion by relentless Mars,
Laughing at Death, wage an unceasing fight.
The thunder of the guns, the scream of shells
Now seem to rend the placid evening air :
Yet as the night is lit by many a flare
The thrush his love in one wild lyric tells.
O sweet blue eve!  Lingering awhile with thee,
Before the earth with thy sweet dews are wet,
My heart all but thy beauty shall forget
And find itself in thy serenity.

Killed the First Day of the Somme -- WN Hodgson -- December 6, 2016

On 01-July-2016, I missed the opportunity to mark the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.  More British soldiers died on that day than on any other day in history.  I thought to make up for it, I would write about some of the poets who died that day.  There were a lot.

WN Hodgson published under the pen name Edward Melbourne.  He wrote "Before Action" on 30-June-1916, one day before he died.

The image is from the movie The Battle of the Somme. 

By all the glories of the day
And the cool evening's benison
By that last sunset touch that lay
Upon the hills when day was done,
By beauty lavishly outpoured
And blessings carelessly received,
By all the days that I have lived
Make me a soldier, Lord.

By all of all man's hopes and fears
 And all the wonders poets sing,
 The laughter of unclouded years,
And every sad and lovely thing;
By the romantic ages stored
With high endeavour that was his,
By all his mad catastrophes
Make me a man, O Lord.

I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
Must say good-bye to all of this;
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord.