https://shellshockpopularculturearchive.com/omeka/files/original/f6ce37e812cc0c080f1f88939a1e90b9.jpg 318a354f720da4b48678830f0b1c242b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource War Poetry Subject The topic of the resource Poetry of the First World War Description An account of the resource During the First World War, writers responded to this international upheaval. While early war poetry lauded values such as bravery, courage, and patriotism, later war poetry dealt with the horrors of war and its lasting impact. This collection reflects later war poetry, though it includes some earlier war poems as well. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1914-1928 Language A language of the resource English Poem Language sung, chanted, spoken, or written according to some pattern of recurrence that emphasizes the relationships between words on the basis of sound as well as sense: this pattern is almost always a rhythm or metre, which may be supplemented by rhyme or alliteration or both. The demands of verbal patterning usually make poetry a more condensed medium than prose or everyday speech, often involving variations in syntax, the use of special words and phrases (poetic diction) peculiar to poets, and a more frequent and more elaborate use of figures of speech, principally metaphor and simile. All cultures have their poetry, using it for various purposes from sacred ritual to obscene insult, but it is generally employed in those utterances and writings that call for heightened intensity of emotion, dignity of expression, or subtlety of meditation. Poetry is valued for combining pleasures of sound with freshness of ideas, whether these be solemn or comical. Some critics make an evaluative distinction between poetry, which is elevated or inspired, and verse, which is merely clever or mechanical. The three major categories of poetry are narrative, dramatic, and lyric, the last being the most extensive. "poetry." Oxford Reference. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100333227 If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way. Dickinson/Higginson Correspondence: 16 August 1870 (Letter 342) http://archive.emilydickinson.org/correspondence/higginson/jnl342.html Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Repression of War Experience Subject The topic of the resource War poetry by Siegfried Sassoon Description An account of the resource In his poem "Repression of War Experience," Siegfried Sassoon uses a metaphor of moths, who "blunder in," only to "scorch their wings with glory, liquid flame," like soldiers who believed that they would prove themselves heroes through war. Like these moths, these men do not escape unscathed, but "go stark, staring mad because of the guns." Sassoon also depicts a common belief held by psychologists of the era" "And it's been proved that soldiers don't go mad / Unless they lose control of ugly thoughts" One such man who believed this hypothesis was W.H.R. Rivers, who treated Sassoon for his shell-shock at Craiglockhart Hospital. In the summer of 1917, Rivers delivered a talk to the Royal Society of Medicine, titled "The Repression of War Experience." Rivers argued that shell-shock was the result of rapid training which did not allow soldiers to accumulate repression of battle trauma which would later become shell-shock. Rivers believed in Sigmund Freud's repression hypothesis of trauma, where negative thoughts are pushed to the back of the unconscious mind. In his similarly named poem "Repression of War Experience," Sassoon translates this psychological theory into his depiction of shell-shock, which turns men into illogical creatures, like moths who fly towards the very fire which kills them, their ugly thoughts of war, "that drive them out to jabber among the trees." Now light the candles; one; two; there's a moth; What silly beggars they are to blunder in And scorch their wings with glory, liquid flame— No, no, not that,—it's bad to think of war, When thoughts you've gagged all day come back to scare you; And it's been proved that soldiers don't go mad Unless they lose control of ugly thoughts That drive them out to jabber among the trees. Now light your pipe; look, what a steady hand. Draw a deep breath; stop thinking; count fifteen, And you're as right as rain ... Why won't it rain? ... I wish there'd be a thunder-storm to-night, With bucketsful of water to sluice the dark, And make the roses hang their dripping heads. Books; what a jolly company they are, Standing so quiet and patient on their shelves, Dressed in dim brown, and black, and white, and green, And every kind of colour. Which will you read? Come on; O do read something; they're so wise. I tell you all the wisdom of the world Is waiting for you on those shelves; and yet You sit and gnaw your nails, and let your pipe out, And listen to the silence: on the ceiling There's one big, dizzy moth that bumps and flutters; And in the breathless air outside the house The garden waits for something that delays. There must be crowds of ghosts among the trees,— Not people killed in battle,—they're in France,— But horrible shapes in shrouds--old men who died Slow, natural deaths,—old men with ugly souls, Who wore their bodies out with nasty sins. * * * You're quiet and peaceful, summering safe at home; You'd never think there was a bloody war on! ... O yes, you would ... why, you can hear the guns. Hark! Thud, thud, thud,—quite soft ... they never cease— Those whispering guns—O Christ, I want to go out And screech at them to stop—I'm going crazy; I'm going stark, staring mad because of the guns. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Siegfried Sassoon Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/document/9855/9738">http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/document/9855/9738</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="https://oxford.omeka.net/s/ww1lit/item/68688" class="waffle-rich-text-link" style="font-size:13px;color:#1155cc;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;font-family:Arial;font-style:italic;">Counter Attack And Other Poems</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1919 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Harry Ransom Center / The Siegfried Sassoon Literary Estate