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WWI poetry

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 7:57 pm
by JaneEyre
hum and haw... hum and haw...
I really do not wish to make some advertisment if this is not allowed on this forum, but there is a very good set of books at a very good price at the moment and KS3 pupils do study WW I poetry at some point:

https://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/ ... collection" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I haven't seen the books to be honest but I like a good bargain and it is hard - actually extemely hard!- to resist this one (my hubby recommended 'no expenses during two months as we need to have some work done on hour home'). :cry: Shall I obey him or not? :? and we have no space on our shelves full of books :? ... and I have already 'up to the line to death - an anthology selected by Brian Gardner).

Here is the comment by someone who has this collection, giving it five starts out of five:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Faber-War-Poets ... collection" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That makes obedience to DH even harder! :lol: :lol:


I have also a question for our dear German speakers forum members (maybe Amber would know?).
Some decades ago, for my German exam at the French Baccalaureat, I studied several texts by a well-known German author who wrote about WWI. His writings are not poems (if I remember well :? ) but striking short stories...
Does anyone have an idea of author?

Re: WWI poetry

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:10 pm
by Sally-Anne
JaneEyre wrote:I really do not wish to make some advertisment if this is not allowed on this forum, but there is a very good set of books at a very good price at the moment and KS3 pupils do study WW I poetry at some point:
Not a problem - genuinely helpful recommendations from regular members are fine.
I have also a question for our dear German speakers forum members (maybe Amber would know?).
Some decades ago, for my German exam at the French Baccalaureat, I studied several texts by a well-known German author who wrote about WWI. His writings are not poems (if I remember well :? ) but striking short stories...
Does anyone have an idea of author?
No, and now I'm even more hot and bothered because I should know!

<wilts in the heat> :oops:

Re: WWI poetry

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:25 pm
by quasimodo
As someone who is a bookphile I can only give you one answer.

Further in the interests of domestic bliss you have to go against your partners wishes on some occasions so that you can appreciate the times of domestic bliss. :lol:

Ps if you have run out of space on your shelves I now double stack even though again you may run out of room as I have again.You could adopt my wife's attitude and pass some books to younger members in the family as she does with the children's books and toys.

The second part of your question is out of my league.

Re: WWI poetry

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:39 pm
by JaneEyre
quasimodo wrote: Further in the interests of domestic bliss you have to go against your partners wishes on some occasions so that you can appreciate the times of domestic bliss. :lol:
:lol: :lol: I giggle even more as you are a man, quasimodo!
argh! if my husaband were just able to read a novel in his life!!!! :cry:

Re: WWI poetry

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:39 pm
by JaneEyre
quasimodo wrote: Further in the interests of domestic bliss you have to go against your partners wishes on some occasions so that you can appreciate the times of domestic bliss. :lol:
:lol: :lol: I giggle even more as you are a man, quasimodo!
argh! if my husband were just able to read a novel in his life!!!! :cry:

Re: WWI poetry

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:06 pm
by Snowdrops
Arrrgh, no. Every time we hear about war poets it sends shivers down mine and oh's spine. A few years ago we went on one of our many trips to the Somme. Whilst there we organised a tour around some trenches at the Ulster Tower. Everything was going well until we were informed there was a last minute addition to the group which was to be a bus party who were doing a tour of two poets (Blunden and Rosenberg). Bel Mooney happened to be with them and wrote an article, here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... Somme.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It all started off well, but at the first stop, after our guide gave us a little talk he announced the poets would like to do a reading, we'd already had one overlooking the Schwaben Redoubt (the side the Germans were defending when the British attacked), but never mind, we could put up with another. And on we moved to the next point of interest. Another little talk and we were just about to set iff when it was announced there would be another reading. We duly stood, listening as reverently as we could before we moved on to the next bomb crater or trench. At the next stop, yes you guessed it, another reading. Another at the next and so on until we who were not part of the poets' group were thoroughly fed up and had our tour ruined.

War poetry puts shivers down our spines at the mere mention of it. However. At that price it would be criminal not to get it!

Re: WWI poetry

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:08 pm
by Snowdrops
Oh and was it Ernst Junger?

Re: WWI poetry

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:37 am
by ToadMum
Rainer Maria Rilke?

Re: WWI poetry

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 12:32 am
by JaneEyre
I apologise for the delay to thank you, snowdrops and toadmum… :oops:

snowdrops, I feel sorry that an overdose of WW1 poetry has blighted your battlefields tour!!

I do not think it is Rainer Maria Rilke as the author name is not as well-know as Rilke.
As for Ernst Jünger, according to Wikipedia which is not a 100% reliable source, he wrote a book relating his war experiences -Storm of Steel (German title: In Stahlgewittern). Unfortunately, according to the wiki article, this book has been seen as glorifying war. The short stories I studied were definitely NOT glorifying war, rather the opposite!
But thank you so much for trying to help to find the name of this author. That gives me the inclination to read some German literature.
Now, I am getting even more confused. :? Were the short stories concerning WWI or WWII? :?

I will try to contact my childhood friends; they might have the answer to my gnawing interrogation… If I get the name of this author one day, I will post it here in case you would like to read his works. I do not even know if his writing have been translated into English… My level in German have plummeted since my school years and I will not be able to read him any more in German! Long are past the days when I and my friend could pretend to be Germans in the underground in Paris and having our conversations in German. Ah! Teenagers and their crazy ideas!!! :lol: :lol: Anyone with proper knowledge and a good ear would have spotted our mischievous act! :roll:

In my (not yet extensive) research, I was reading about Herman Hesse and I found this passage which I find rather interesting and I would like to share it with all the forumite parents:

From childhood, Hesse appeared headstrong and hard for his family to handle. In a letter to her husband, Hermann's mother Marie wrote: "The little fellow has a life in him, an unbelievable strength, a powerful will, and, for his four years of age, a truly astonishing mind. How can he express all that? It truly gnaws at my life, this internal fighting against his tyrannical temperament, his passionate turbulence [...] God must shape this proud spirit, then it will become something noble and magnificent – but I shudder to think what this young and passionate person might become should his upbringing be false or weak."

Re: WWI poetry

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 9:21 pm
by Stroller
JaneEyre wrote:The short stories I studied were definitely NOT glorifying war, rather the opposite!
But thank you so much for trying to help to find the name of this author. That gives me the inclination to read some German literature.
Now, I am getting even more confused. :? Were the short stories concerning WWI or WWII? :?
Could it have been Heinrich Böll?