81–90 of 116 posts
I remember reading this as part of GCSE English, unfortunately the school system in the UK makes poetry dry and uninspiring. In terms of anti-war poems I prefer "The Box" by Kendrew Lascelles.
About 150 Iranian sailors drowned this morning, far from home, not a clear and present danger to anyone, no war declared on them by Congress, nor sanctioned by the UN. We could have demanded a surrender but instead we blew them up. https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/mar/04/iran-war-...
https://theintercept.com/2025/12/05/boat-strike-survivors-do...
The ceremony, pomp and reverence we pay to soldiers and the fallen are all aimed at making sure the young remain willing to do an ugly job at affordable prices. For every poem like this there is a parade, monument, wreath-laying ceremony, or the modern equivalent of young girls handing white feathers to young boys. It seems ungrateful to view it this way. We owe a real debt to the soldiers who died for the world we l…
Killing is the biggest taboo and people need societal "absolution" afterwards.
The absence of this for Vietnam is what caused issues with veterans.
The recital by Christopher Eccleston is more dramatic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB4cdRgIcB8
There's an excellent In Our Time episode on Owen available from the BBC ([1], [2]) where Melvin Bragg gives an gentle yet chilling reading of the climax of the poem (about 29 minutes in). And like many IOT episodes, provides great context and detail eg on Jessie Pope, Sassoon, and so on. [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001df48 [2] https://open.spotify.com/episode/2nd5iWVnNCWL2ulAVsSDLe
[Not the overall point of the poem, but] yet for all that, it turns out chemical weapons aren't even that useful: https://acoup.blog/2020/03/20/collections-why-dont-we-use-ch...
CBRN defence imposes a substantial burden on modern militaries. Our infantry CBRN kit alone weighed 4.5kg, roughly the same weight as ten loaded 30-round STANAG magazines. That penalty applies to every soldier and similar burdens apply to vehicles, emplacements, heavy equipment. It increases fuel consumption, maintenance, logistics.
The training burden is also significant. In my experience nearly 8% of training time was dedicated to CBRN defence, more than marksmanship or signalling.
Operating under CBRN threat severely degrades ops tempo. Buttoning up slows movement, comms, situational awareness and command effectiveness. Speed and violence of action suffer and op tempo can drop by half or more. The impact on combat support and support units is worse than combat units. Naval and air forces fare worse again, with large decontamination requirements affecting sortie tempo, all external operations, and resupply. Even without casualties, the threat alone severely degrades manoeuvre warfare. They act as a force divisor.
The author reverses the logic. Modern militaries avoid chemical weapons for political reasons, not because they are ineffective. After WW1 they became politically toxic, and the Geneva Protocol has held because any state using them today would face immediate international condemnation and serious domestic political consequences.
While we're sharing anti-war songs/poetry, I like And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (originally written by Eric Bogle, but I personally like the Pogues' version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKURhqmSLmM
I was bothered by the fact that the English poem doesn't scan correctly. This prompted me to look up the ode, and I can't figure out the Latin meter. Does anyone know? https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext...
dul.cet.de.co:.rest.|pro:.pa.tri.a:.mo.ri:
mor.set.fu.ga:.cem.|per.se.qui.tur.vi.rum
nec.par.ci.tin.bel.li:s.iu.ven.tae
po:pli.ti.bus.ti.mi.do:.que.ter.go
Reading it like in school (with qualitative stress marking the quantitative meter), that would be:
dulcét decórest | pró patriá morí
morsét fugácem | pérsequitúr virúm
nec párcit ínbellís iuvéntae
póplitibús timidóque térgo.
While we're sharing anti-war songs/poetry, I like And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (originally written by Eric Bogle, but I personally like the Pogues' version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKURhqmSLmM
Fortunately, at least in my time, this was part of the curriculum in UK schools, and we had an exceptional English teacher. Like one of the other commenters here, I'm a science and numbers man, but can recite this poem still. Perhaps it was particularly memorable as I have an ancestor who occupies Sanctuary Wood as a consequence of a gas shell.