Non-English poetry is also welcome. Extra points if it's about non-political themes.

  • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Siegfried Sassoon's "Suicide in the Trenches" about WWI:

    I knew a simple soldier boy

    Who grinned at life in empty joy,

    Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,

    And whistled early with the lark.

    In winter trenches, cowed and glum,

    With crumps and lice and lack of rum,

    He put a bullet through his brain.

    No one spoke of him again.

    You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

    Who cheer when soldier lads march by,

    Sneak home and pray you'll never know

    The hell where youth and laughter go.

    (wow the posting really fucked up the stanzas so I had to put paragraph breaks between them)

      • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        It truly is a mind-boggling war to even think about, let alone to imagine living through. Artillery barrages so long and loud that men lost the ability to hear themselves think. I would have a nervous breakdown, 100% certain, if I were subjected to that.

        • StevenPinkerton [he/him]
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          edit-2
          4 years ago

          I hate how that Peter Jackson movie made it seem like a jolly good time in spite of all the horror, especially as it's fucking well-edited

          • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            I had no idea he even made a WWI movie. I'm gonna go watch the ending of Paths of Glory, get teary eyed, and pretend I don't know about that Peter Jackson movie existing.

            • StevenPinkerton [he/him]
              ·
              4 years ago

              It's a very.. interesting movie tbh, with real footage that has been edited with color and sound. Just that pretty much all war movies end up glorifying war to some degree and this one has a bunch of interviews with vets who seem to have enjoyed the ordeal to some extent

        • Abraxiel
          ·
          4 years ago

          One of the things that causes a lot of problems for veterans is that being near enough an explosion that it doesn't kill you but still hits you with the pressure wave is basically like getting a TBI. "Shellshocked" was probably a very accurate term for a lot of those lads.