David Westcott Brown (1893 - 1916) – British soldier poet

With thanks to The Skipper's War website of the Dragon School, Oxford for finding this poet for us

David was born in Durham in 1893.  His parents were Anglican church Minister the Rev. George Gibson Brown and his wife, Nelly Brown, nee Hardman. At the time of David’s death, his Father was Rector of St. Mary's Church, Bedford.

After winning a scholarship to Marlborough, David went up to Oxford University to Balliol College to read ‘Greats’. When war broke out, he joined up and was commissioned into the 6th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment.

David was reported wounded and missing on 16 July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He is recorded as having gone out into No Man’s Land with a sergeant to reconnoitre. The sergeant was subsequently found dead but Captain Westcott Brown’s body was not found. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier and Face 2 C and 3 A.

“Two Voices” a poem by Capt. David Westcott Brown (Leicestershire Regiment)

“The roads are all torn” ; “but the sun’s in the sky,”

“The houses are waste” ; “but the day is all fair,”

“There’s death in the air” ; “and the larks are on high,”

“Though we die – ” ; “it is spring-time, what do we care?”

“The gardens are rank” ; “but the grass is still green,”

“The orchards are shot-torn” ; “there’s a bloom on the trees,”

“There’s war all around” ; “yet is nature serene,”

“There’s danger” ; “we’ll bear it, fanned by the breeze.”

“Some are wounded” ; “they rest, and their glory is known,”

“Some are killed” ; “there’s peace for them under the sod,”

“Men’s homes are in peril” ; “their souls are their own,”

“The bullets are near us” ; “not nearer than God.”

Sources:  Find my past, Free BMD and

https://skipperswar.com/2016/07/29/july-29th-1916/

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205023698

The Menin Gate Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders, which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and built by the Imperial War Graves Commission (since renamed the Commonwealth War Graves Commission), the Menin Gate Memorial was unveiled on 24 July 1927.  It is dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient during World War I whose graves are unknown.

“The Menin Gate at Midnight” by Australian Artist Will Longstaff (1879 – 1953) 

Will Longstaff enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at the outbreak of the First World War and was injured in the Gallipoli campaign. In October 1915 he joined a remount unit and served in France and Egypt before being evacuated to England in 1917. In England, he began drawing again and was trained in the art of camouflage. During his time in Egypt, Longstaff had made images of the ANZAC Mounted Division and the other units. Upon his appointment as an Official War Artist in 1918 he produced numerous works during the final campaigns of the Western Front.

On the night of July 24th 1927, Artist Will Longstaff painted his “Menin Gate at Midnight” in one sitting. He had been so moved by the Memorial’s unveiling ceremony that afterwards during a walk along Menin Road he claimed to have had visions of the soldiers’ spirits rising from the surrounding fields.

Paul Zech (1881 – 1946) – German poet

With thanks to Historian, Writer and Poet AC Benus

for discovering and researching this poet and for translating the poem for us

Paul Zech 1914

Paul Zech was born in Müncheberg (Eastern Brandenburg).  His father was a rope maker.  

It is difficult to be precise about Paul Zech's life as there are several sites with biographies of Zech but it seems he did a variety of different jobs, including a warehouse clerk and confectioner.  He may have done an apprenticeship as a baker.    From around 1904, had poems published in local publications wherever he lived and in 1907 was invited to the annual poetry competition "Kölner Blumenspiele", where he received an "honourable mention".

At the beginning of the First World War, Zech wrote patriotic poems. However, in 1915, his enthusiasm for the war began to wane and gave way to skepticism. He served on the Western Front, notably in the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme. In a letter to the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, he wrote:

" My dear friend,   

"Battle of the Somme" by Richard
Caton Woodville (1856 - 1927)

I would never have believed that there could still be something that surpasses the hell of Verdun. There, I suffered horribly. Now that it's over, I can say it. But that was not enough: now we have been sent to the Somme. And here everything is taken to its extreme point: hatred, dehumanization, horror and blood. (…) I no longer know what can still happen to us, I wanted to greet you once again. Maybe it's the last. "

In August 1933, suspected of embezzlement and theft, Zech left Berlin for Vienna and Trieste and sailed to Montevideo, Buenos Aires, where he died in 1946.

An example of Paul Zech's poetry:

Nächtliche Dörfer in der Woevre 

(Frühsommer 1916)

II.

Das nesse Laub im Mond wird weißer Mohn.

Unruhig feilen Stürme in den Zweigen,

aus daß sie sich wie Flügel niederneigen.

Die Häuserfronten sind entschlafen schon.

Die Wohner aber finden noch nicht Ruh‘;

in Augen, müd zurüchgedreht nach innen,     

WW1  postcard

nistet ein schwarzer Traum, beginnt zu spinnen

und schnürt dem Schrei des Bluts die Kehle zu.

Verschlafen kräht der Hahn und kräht sich wach,

Angstaugen wach zersprungenen Fensterscheiben,

wenn der Haubitzen-Donner Ziegel fegt vom Dach.

Herzruhig nur die fremden Mütter bleiben;

rosige Kinder lächeln noch im Traum —

Nachglanz von Sonne, Bach und Apfelbaum.

Translated by AC Benus 

Nocturnal villages in the Woevre [Woëvre in French – is an area in Lorraine, North-west France]

(early summer 1916)

II.

  Wet leaves in the moonlight turn to white poppies.

Turbulent storms file and march through the branches,

so they bend towards earth like the tip of wings.

The house fronts have all fallen into slumber.

 But dwellers inside can yet find them no rest;

in their eyes, wearily turned back inwardly,

a black dream is nesting, which begins to spin

and lace itself round the throat with screams of blood.

Sleepy crows the cock as crows awake themselves,

angst-eyes opened with the shattered windowpanes

when Howitzers thunder-sweep tiles from the roof.

Only oddly inured mothers remain calm;

their rosy-cheeked children still smiling in dreams —

the afterglow of sun, stream and apple trees.

(p. 93 “Golgotha Eine Beschwörung zwischen zwei Feuern” by Paul Zech (Hoffmann und Campe Verlag, Berlin, 1920)

https://archive.org/details/3361450/page/93/mode/2up

Paul Zech by German
artist Ludwig Meidner (1884 - 1966)

AC Benus explains further -- Important war-related texts by Paul Zech (according to Wiki):

"Vor Cressy an der Marne: Gedichte eines Frontsoldaten" ["Before Cressy on the Marne: Poems of a Front-line Soldier"] (1918), under pen name Michel Michael

"Das Grab der Welt: Eine Passion wider den Krieg" ["The Grave of the World: A Passion Against War"] (1919) -- described as entries from his war diaries

Zech was also represented by 12 poems in an important WW1 anthology "Menschheitsdämmerung" ["Dawn of Humanity" - K. Pinthus, editor] (1920) https://archive.org/details/menschheitsdmm00pintuoft/page/n5/mode/2up

"Die Reise um den Kummerberg" ["The Trip Around the Kummerberg"] (1925) - autobiographical novel, including his war experiences

Additional Sources:

https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Paul_Zech?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

https://www.friedenau-aktuell.de/friedhof-stubenrauchstra%C3%9Fe/paul-zech/

AC Benus is the author of a marvellous book about German WW1 poet Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele : “The Thousandth Regiment: A Translation of and Commentary on Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele’s War Poems” by AC Benus (AC Benus, San Francisco, 2020). Along with Hans's story, the book includes original poems as well as translations.    ISBN: 978-1657220584 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1657220583

AC Benus says: "Paul Zech and Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele were close friends and colleagues, co-founding and co-editing the literary and art journal "Das neue Pathos" before the war. 

It's interesting, Lucy, you cite a letter from Zech to Stefan Zweig, as he was also involved with "Das neue Pathos," writing the essay that launched the premier issue of the magazine. Afterwards, it was much reprinted and regarded as an articulate manifesto on the entire German Expressionist Art Movement.

After Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele was killed in action in July 1915, Zech -- like all of Hans' closest friends and family -- took his passing hard. When Hans' partner, F. W. Murnau, broke his malaise by vowing to publish his beloved's final collection of poems in 1917, which included Hans' war sonnets, "The Thousand Regiment," Murnau called on Zech to write the introduction to the book. Which he did, and which provides great insight to the mind of the young, slain poet.

Zech himself grieved for Hans in print. In the post-war years, he published moving tribute poems to Ehrenbaum-Degele, and his 1920 "Golgatha" contains no less than four! No doubt more wait to be uncovered in Zech's prolific output. (So if you run into any, please let me know!)"

Here is one of the poems written by Paul Zech to the memory of his friend Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele

Du aber stöhnst . . . . . 

(In memoriam Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele.  Gefallen als Leutnant des R. I. R. 90

am 26. [sic] Juli 1915 beim Üebergang über den Narew.)

 

Daß Straßen mit Musik und Gang von Frauen

herznahe wiederkehren unserm Blut;

daß wir, wie Hände weiß und ausgeruht,

uns dehnen werden wieder aufzubauen;

daß ich noch bin — traf Dich das wilde Eisen,

Dich, Jahre mir zur Sehe, Kamerad.

Nie trug ein aufgebrochner Acker solche Saat,

saftseufzend durch Aeonen noch zu kreisen.

Die Meise schüchtern auf zerschundenem Baum,

verwaiste Jugend, Mütter schwarz im Schmerzgeschmeide

umfriedet schon ein Hauch von Heimat-Traum.

Du aber stöhnst, da neuer Lenz beginnt,

dumpf durch den hohlen Silbermund der Weide

Dein frierendes Allein Gestirn und taubem Wind.

Translation by AC Benus 

You yet breathe . . . . . 

(In memoriam Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele.Killed in action as Lieutenant of the R[eserves],

90th I[nfantry] R[everses], on the [27th] of July,1915, crossing over the Narew.)

Those streets with music and the sway of women

Kept close to our hearts will have blood return;

so that to us, hands porcelain and relaxed 

will stretch to guide as we start to rebuild; 

or I yet have life — though wild iron mowed you down,

You, after years of being close to me, friend.

Never have tilled-under fields carried such seed,

a sighing force to circle beneath eons. 

The chicks are frightened on the shattered trees,

the orphaned young, mothers blackened in pain  

encased now in a wisp of heavenly dreams.

But you will breathe again as a new spring comes,

muffled through the willow’s hollow silver mouth  

with your bright star alone above the wind.

NOTE: The Narew is a 499-kilometre (310 miles) river that rises in north-east Poland - it is also a tributary of the River Vistula. The Narew is one of Europe's few 'braided' rivers, the term relating to the twisted channels resembling braided hair. Around 57 kilometres (35 miles) of the river flows through western Belarus.

 Robert Palmer (1888 – 1916) – British soldier poet

The Honorable Robert Stafford Arthur Palmer, called Bobby by his family, was born on 26th September 1888 at 20 Arlington Street, London, UK.  He was the second son of William Waldegrave James Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne, KG, GCMG and Warden of Winchester College, and his wife, Maud Beatrice, the Countess of Selborne, nee Cecil, of Blackmoor, Liss, Hants. Robert was educated at Winchester College and University College, Oxford University.

Robert joined the 6th Battalion Hampshire Regiment - his county Territorial battalion - and went with them to India in October 1914. The following August he left Agra with a draft to reinforce the 4th Battalion of the Hampshires and took part with them in an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the garrison at Kut-el-Amara.   By then a Captain, Robert was wounded during the Battle of Umm-El-Hannal, Mesopotamia on 21st January 1916 and died in a Turkish Prisoner of War camp. He is remembered on the Basra Memorial, reference:

Panel 21 and 63.  Robert is also commemorated at Winchester College by the altar piece in Chapel, erected in his memory and the memory of Lieutenant Wilmot Babington Parker-Smith, who died of wounds on 12 September 1915. Palmer's parents paid for the "Mother" figure, which was dedicated in 1923 by HRH The Prince of Wales.

His parents had Robert’s war letters and poems privately published in 1916 as “Letters from Mesopotamia: from Robert Palmer”.

This poem by Robert Palmer was published in 5 WW1 anthologies.

 

How long, O Lord, how long, before the flood

Of crimson-welling carnage shall abate?

From sodden plains in West and East the blood

Of kindly men streams up in mists of hate

Polluting Thy clear air: and nations great

In reputation of the arts that bind

The world with hopes of Heaven, sink to the state

Of brute barbarians, whose ferocious mind

Gloats o'er the bloody havoc of their kind,

Not knowing love or mercy. Lord, how long

Shall Satan in high places lead the blind

To battle for the passions of the strong?

Oh, touch thy children's hearts, that they may know

Hate their most hateful, pride their deadliest foe.

Sources:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17584/17584-h/17584-h.htm  p. 44

Catherine Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A  Bibliogrpahy” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) pp. 248 – 249

https://www.winchestercollegeatwar.com/RollofHonour.aspx?RecID=374&TableName=ta_wwifactfile

Poets killed on the first day of the Battle of Arras - Easter Monday, 9th April 1917

The poets Edward Thomas, R.E. Vernède, William Maunsell Scanlan, MC, MM and Walter Lightowler Wilkinson were killed on the first day of the Battle of Arras, which was Easter Monday, 9th April 1917.  My Great Uncle was also killed on that day during that battle.  The poet William Henry Littlejohn was mortally wounded on 9th April 1917 and died the following day.

With thanks to Paul Johnson for finding the image entitled "Zero, 9 April 1917" by Major C.J.B. Way, RAMC, which is taken from the book "The Golden Horseshoe".