tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post7769771937992915427..comments2024-03-26T03:11:42.678-04:00Comments on Behind Their Lines: Sad streets of warConnie R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00887098543181126157noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-43184074791853101522019-01-20T16:27:31.083-05:002019-01-20T16:27:31.083-05:00Thanks for reading! Thanks for reading! Connie R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00887098543181126157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-7686544678137330002019-01-20T13:54:45.530-05:002019-01-20T13:54:45.530-05:00A master in words Edmund Blunden; nice article aga...A master in words Edmund Blunden; nice article again Connie<br />mijn verzameling Vin Jaune wijnenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09566221699914801467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-40253616718603863232018-01-21T09:53:23.006-05:002018-01-21T09:53:23.006-05:00In the opinions of many, "Undertones" is...In the opinions of many, "Undertones" is one of the best prose books about the war -- magnificent, indeed. Connie R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00887098543181126157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-24587090693202977602018-01-21T09:15:47.268-05:002018-01-21T09:15:47.268-05:00Can't help but be grateful for Blunden's o...Can't help but be grateful for Blunden's obsession - "Undertones" is a magnificent book with the content blessed with the arts of the poet and writer.Ian Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10253106381895084914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-70927045254547781002016-05-16T10:57:08.176-04:002016-05-16T10:57:08.176-04:00The two poems are the same, but there seems to be ...The two poems are the same, but there seems to be variation in the titling: "Festubert, 1916" and "1916 seen from 1921." I may have increased the confusion by only including the first two stanzas in my post, with a link to the full text of the poem (that includes all four stanzas).<br /><br />Chris, I find your gloss on Blunden's psychology adds richness to the experience of the poem -- thanks for sharing. Along the same lines, I find Robert Graves' poem "Sorley's Weather" to be quite moving. Here's a link to Graves' poem: http://behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-ghost-of-sorley.htmlConnie R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00887098543181126157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-82614485647114932742016-05-16T05:46:46.802-04:002016-05-16T05:46:46.802-04:00But now what once was mine is mine no more,
I seek...But now what once was mine is mine no more,<br />I seek such neighbours here and I find none.<br />With such strong gentleness and tireless will<br />Those ruined houses seared themselves in me,<br />Passionate I look for their dumb story still,<br />And the charred stub outspeaks the living tree.<br /><br />I had never given the matter much thought, but Blunden, who must somehow have remained "stuck in time", literally repeats the line about he charred stub and the living tree in his later poem "1916 seen from 1921". <br /><br />Apparently unable to exorcise his ghosts of war, the poet kept coming back to the battlefields time and again after the war. Needless to say these visits only exacerbated the abyss between his obsession with the war one way, and a physical and emotional landscape that had meanwhile undergone dramatic changes, the other. <br /><br />Like many of the surviving war poets, it must have made him feel utterly and tragically alienated. c.spriethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03362112445796023444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-80154976912025485162016-05-09T10:39:21.435-04:002016-05-09T10:39:21.435-04:00Thanks, Chris, for the richness of the additional ...Thanks, Chris, for the richness of the additional information you've added. I, too, wonder who cares for the truth that poets speak. Your work in this area is making a difference (I tried to get a copy of your book, but it's nearly impossible in the US). Connie R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00887098543181126157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-71554792714410369632016-05-09T09:57:27.896-04:002016-05-09T09:57:27.896-04:00When he had finally reached his decision to entrus...When he had finally reached his decision to entrust his private war memories to paper, which he did in Undertones of War (1928), Edmund Blunden wrote that "I must go over the ground again". To that statement he added in one of his poems that, in his perception, "the charred stub outspeaks the living tree".<br /><br />Just northeast of Ypres another 19 war dead were found in the course of digging works preliminary to installing a new gas mains.<br /><br />There is so much truth in The Northern Irish poet Michael Longley's verse that "there never will be an end to cleaning up after the war" (poem The War Graves). <br />As Wilfred Owen once wrote: "That is why the true poets should be truthful." <br />However, who cares for the truth that poets speak, I have often wondered. <br /><br />Warm regards, and keep up the good work.c.spriethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03362112445796023444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-62344188411959753702016-05-09T09:57:17.159-04:002016-05-09T09:57:17.159-04:00When he had finally reached his decision to entrus...When he had finally reached his decision to entrust his private war memories to paper, which he did in Undertones of War (1928), Edmund Blunden wrote that "I must go over the ground again". To that statement he added in one of his poems that, in his perception, "the charred stub outspeaks the living tree".<br /><br />Just northeast of Ypres another 19 war dead were found in the course of digging works preliminary to installing a new gas mains.<br /><br />There is so much truth in The Northern Irish poet Michael Longley's verse that "there never will be an end to cleaning up after the war" (poem The War Graves). <br />As Wilfred Owen once wrote: "That is why the true poets should be truthful." <br />However, who cares for the truth that poets speak, I have often wondered. <br /><br />Warm regards, and keep up the good work.c.spriethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03362112445796023444noreply@blogger.com