{"id":286,"date":"2014-11-20T15:59:15","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T14:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.univ-tlse2.fr\/1940s\/?page_id=286"},"modified":"2021-10-14T15:38:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T13:38:04","slug":"question-time","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.univ-tlse2.fr\/1940s\/question-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Question Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The question \u201cWhere are the war poets? was asked as early as 30 December,1939 in an editorial of the\u00a0Times Literary Supplement<\/em>. To that blunt question Herbert Read’s “To a Conscript of 1940” is a masterful reply. On June 13th 1940 the question of the exemption from military service of Auden and Isherwood was raised in Parliament (Hansard<\/a>). Below, are four poets’ replies to the implications of that question.<\/p>\n

War Poet<\/strong><\/p>\n

We in our haste can only see the small components of the scene
\nWe cannot tell what incidents will focus on the final screen.
\nA barrage of disruptive sound, a petal on a sleeping face,
\nBoth must be noted, both must have their place.<\/p>\n

It may be that our later selves or else our unborn sons
\nWill search for meaning in the dust of long-deserted guns,
\nWe only watch, and indicate and make our scribbled pencil notes.
\nWe do not wish to moralize, only to ease our dusty throats.<\/p>\n

– Donald Bain (1922- )<\/p>\n

Where are the war poets?<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>
\nThey who in folly or mere greed
\nEnslaved religion, markets, laws,
\nBorrow our language now and bid
\nUs to speak up in freedom\u2019s cause.<\/p>\n

It is the logic of our times,
\nNo subject for immortal verse \u2013
\nThat we who lived by honest dreams
\nDefend the bad against the worse.<\/p>\n

– Cecil Day Lewis (1904-72)<\/p>\n

A Note on War Poetry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not the expression of collective emotion
\nImperfectly reflected in the daily papers.
\nWhere is the point at which the merely individual
\nExplosion breaks<\/p>\n

In the path of an action merely typical
\nTo create the universal, originate a symbol
\nOut of the impact ? This is a meeting
\nOn which we attend<\/p>\n

Of forces beyond control by experiment \u2013
\nOf Nature and the Spirit. Mostly the individual
\nExperience is too large, or too small. Our emotions
\nAre only \u2018incidents\u2019<\/p>\n

In the effort to keep day and night together.
\nIt seems just possible that a poem might happen
\nTo a very young man : but a poem is not poetry \u2013
\nThat is a life.<\/p>\n

War is not a life : it is a situation ;
\nOne which may neither be ignored nor accepted,
\nA problem to be met with ambush and stratagem,
\nEnveloped or scattered.<\/p>\n

The enduring is not a substitute for the transient,
\nNeither one for the other. But the abstract conception
\nOf private experience at its greatest intensity
\nBecoming universal, which we call \u2018poetry\u2019,
\nMay be affirmed in verse.<\/p>\n

– T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)<\/p>\n

War Poet<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am the man who looked for peace and found
\nMy own eyes barbed.
\nI am the man who groped for words and found
\nAn arrow in my hand.
\nI am the builder
\nWhose firm walls surround
\nA slipping land.
\nWhen I grow sick or mad
\nMock me not nor chain me ;
\nWhen I reach for the wind
\nCast me not down
\nThough my face is a burnt book
\nAnd a wasted town.<\/p>\n

– Sidney Keyes (1922-43)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The question \u201cWhere are the war poets? was asked as early as 30 December,1939 in an editorial of the\u00a0Times Literary Supplement. To that blunt question Herbert Read’s “To a Conscript of 1940” is a masterful reply. On June 13th 1940 the question of the exemption from military service of Auden and Isherwood was raised in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"page-templates\/front-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-286","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.univ-tlse2.fr\/1940s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.univ-tlse2.fr\/1940s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.univ-tlse2.fr\/1940s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.univ-tlse2.fr\/1940s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.univ-tlse2.fr\/1940s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.univ-tlse2.fr\/1940s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.univ-tlse2.fr\/1940s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/286\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.univ-tlse2.fr\/1940s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}