Friday Inspiration: Those Foreign Fields

Sometimes it’s the simplest titles…

Socks

Shining pins that dart and click

In the fireside’s sheltered peace

Check the thoughts that cluster thick –

20 plain and then decrease

He was brave – well, so was I –

Keen and merry, but his lip

Quivered when he said good-bye –

Purl the seam-stitch, purl and slip.

Never used to living rough,

Lots of things he’d got to learn;

Wonder if he’s warm enough –

Knit 2, catch 2, knit 1, turn.

Hark! The paper-boys again!

Whish that shout could be suppressed;

Keeps one always on the strain –

Knit off 9, and slip the rest.

Wonder if he’s fighting now,

What he’s done and where he’s been;

He’ll come out on top, somehow –

Slip 1, knit 2, purl 14.

-          Jesse Pope

With Veteran’s Day coming up next week, I thought I’d delve into some of my books on various wars and conflicts. The above poem is taken from a beautiful collection I discovered at a book store once. Called, A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Illustrated Poetry of the First World War, the poems were selected by Fiona Waters and illustrated with photos from the Daily Mail, it is a heart-wrenching tribute to all caught up in the war – from the soldiers in the trenches to the wives, sweethearts and children left behind.

Some books I can highly recommend:

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.

Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present by Annabel Venning, Headline Book Publishing, 2005.

A Corner of a ForeignField: The Illustrated Poetry of the First World War by Fiona Waters, Transatlantic Press, 2007.