Poetry – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

A W.W. I Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Poem (The English Review, 1920)

There can be no doubt that as a term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is clearly lacking the needed musical quality that would add to the pleasing rhythm of a poem, however the melancholy that is generated by the malady has launched a million poems throughout the course of the last century, which was to date, the bloodiest yet. Most often remembered for her anti-war verses, Lady Margaret Sackville (1881 – 1963) penned this diddly about that legion of crushed and broken men returned to their wives after World War One and how entirely unrecognizable they seemed:

You cannot speak to us nor we reply:

You learnt a different language where men die…

Siegfried Sassoon Reviewed (Touchstone Magazine, 1920)

American poet Marguerite Wilkinson(1883 — 1928) was very impressed with the World War I poetry of Sigfried Sassoon, MC (1886 – 1967); in this three page review she lucidly explained why Sassoon’s voice was different from all the other wartime versifiers and illustrated her point by quoting liberally from his two earlier volumes, The Old Huntsman (1917) and Counter Attack (1918):

Such wisdom is the shining power of Sigfried Sassoon. To read it is to come face to face with indelible memories of unspeakable anguish. No palliatives are offered. The truth about warfare is told, as Mr. Sassoon understands it, with vigor and in sight…It is told by a man, a soldier, who will never forget this Calvary of the youth of our generation.

Poets in Their Glory: Dead (Literary Digest, 1917)

This 1917 article listed the known body count of dead poets who were rotting away in no-man’s land. A number of the scribes are unknown in our era; among the prominent names are Alan Seeger, Julian Grenfel and Rupert Brooke.

Printed in a popular U.S. magazine, it appeared on the newsstands the same week that Wilfred Owen, the most well known of World War I poets, was discharged from Craiglockhart Hospital, where he first resolved to write poetry about his experiences in the war.