CRW Nevinson, Harvest of Battle, ©IWM (Art.IWM ART 1921) |
William Noel Hodgson, youngest
child of a vicar and known to his regiment as “Smiler,” was among those who
fought at Loos. In the aftermath of the battle,
Hodgson wrote about what the soldiers had endured and how it had changed them.
Back to Rest
(Composed while
marching to Rest Camp
after severe
fighting at Loos)
A leaping wind
from England,
Clean cut
against the morning
Slim poplars
after rain,
The foolish
notes of sparrows
And starlings in
a wood –
After the grime
of battle
We know that
these are good.
Death whining
down from Heaven,
Death roaring
from the ground,
Death stinking
in the nostril,
Death shrill in
every sound,
Doubting we
charged and conquered –
Hopeless we
struck and stood.
Now when the
fight is ended
We know that it
was good.
We that have
seen the strongest
Cry like a
beaten child,
The sanest eyes
unholy,
The cleanest
hands defiled,
We that have
known the heart blood
Less than the
lees of wine,
We that have
seen men broken,
We know man is
divine.
The poem’s
opening stanza exults in simply being alive. With senses acutely aware of the sounds,
smells, and sights of life, the poet has
cause to marvel at the small miracles of the day. The wind, weather, birds, and trees
rejoice with him, and contrasted with the grime of war, the freshness
of rain and the breeze cleanse the men who march to their rest. Like the Creator of Genesis, they pronounce
everything “good.”
The second
stanza is darker; the first four lines lead with the repeated drumbeat of “Death.”
The deafening noise and appalling smells
of the battle are overwhelming. And yet despite horrific conditions, despite the men’s doubts (perhaps in their
commanders, perhaps in their own fortitude), and despite their hopelessness
(suffering and death seem inevitable), the soldiers attack. When the fighting has ended and the men
realize they have survived, they are able to pronounce even the fighting itself
“good.”
The third stanza
reveals the horrors of war, as well as its bewildering mystery. Strong and
sane before battle, the men returning from the front lines have committed and observed atrocities that leave them unholy,
defiled, and helplessly weeping like children. In his Battalion War Diary, Hodgson
writes of finding “six men killed in their sleep by a single shell, a shortfall
from their own artillery. He sees ‘a
white hand with a ring on the little finger,’ and, ‘thinking of some girl or
wife at home, bends down to recover the ring, and finds that the hand ends
abruptly at the wrist. There is no sign
of the owner about’” (Zeepvat’s Before
Action** 127). Men witnessed the brokenness of bodies and minds after battle – and in seeing and surviving
even this, they are not diminished, but divine.
Less than a year
later, on July 1, 1916, the opening day of the Somme offensive, Hodgson and the
men of the 9th Devonshires
were ordered to attack German trenches near Mametz. By the end of the day, 159 men of the
battalion lay dead in No Man’s Land, including Hodgson, who had been shot
through the throat. The men were buried
together in the trench they had left that morning, and the unit’s survivors
erected a wooden cross above their graves that read, “The Devonshires
held this trench. The Devonshires hold
it still.”
*Rawlinson, quoted in Richard Holmes’ The Little Field-Marshal: A Life of Sir John French, J. Cape, 1981, p. 304.
**Charlotte Zeepvat’s Before Action, is an absorbing and insightful biography of Hodgson.
**Charlotte Zeepvat’s Before Action, is an absorbing and insightful biography of Hodgson.
Its very interesting to compare the sentiments with Hodgson's more famous poem 'Before Action'. I'm going with two students to visit his grave with the November Poetry by Heart Tour and your research has inspired me to think differently about this young man's writing. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI accompanied last month's PBH tour, and words can't describe the richness of the experience. Thanks for reading and commenting -- and for inspiring young people's love of poetry!
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