Poems of war

War has always defined and refined our existence.

Soldiers sharing a cigarette in the trenches. Photo: Courtesy

During this times, many have found gems in writing down the emotions and distortions of war, the brutality and tragedy of conflict and the unfathomable loss and grief it drags along.

Here are some of my favorite poems that tell it all;

Here dead we lie, by A. E. Housman

Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
From which we sprung.
Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.
 

My Boy Jack, by Rudyard Kipling

"Have you news of my boy Jack?"
Not this tide.
"When d’you think that he’ll come back?"
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Has any one else had word of him?"
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?"
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

                                                                                                                                                   Courtesy