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Poetry of The Great War,
1914-1918
This page does not pretend to be in the least bit epic in size, merely one point
of view, told through the eyes of a few of the poets who portrayed World War I through their words and their emotions, and
to all but a few, their lives, given, in service. Many millions of lives were lost in this great conflict, and we suppose
that final counts of the dead will never be clearly known.
Let us then leave this stage and allow the poets to speak for themselves, and to
allow Benjamnin Britten's masterpiece,
War Requiem, to speak, as well......
THEY WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN.
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
-Only the monstrous
anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now
for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And
bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to
speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor
of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down
of blinds.
Benjamin Britten's War Requiem
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| Sean Bean as The German Soldier |
The principal actors do not speak. The music speaks for them, the life and work
of Wilfred Owen, speak for them.In a series of devastating images, Derek Jarman shows us the useless horror of war. Brutal,
exquisite, sexual, painterly, these are but a few of the words used to describe this film. With Sean Bean as The German Soldier,
Nathaniel Parker as Wilfred Owen, Tilda Swinton as The Nurse, and in a cameo, and as it turned out his final appearance, before
his death, Sir Laurence Olivier as The Old Soldier. These and the other members of the cast, along with Sir Benjamin Britten's
master work, written in 1961, bring us this eternal vision......
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| Polygram Records - #414383. 1990. 2 disc set |
the music that you hear:
requiem aeternam
from Benjamin Britten's
War Requiem.
1913 - 1976
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The Poets
1887-1915
1895-1985
1872-1918
1893-1918
1890-1918
1886-1967
1878 - 1917
The Poems
The First World War and
It's Literature
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The War
University of Birmingham, UK
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