At the POPPIES WAVE installation at Fort Nelson, I noticed this brutal first verse of a poem displayed on an overhead panel. It was written in 1916 by Gilbert Frankau and called 'The Voice of the Guns'.
"We are the guns, and your masters! Saw ye our flashes?
Heard ye the scream of our shells in the night, and the shuddering crashes?
Saw ye our work by the roadside, the shrouded things lying,
Moaning to God that He made them - the maimed and the dying?
Husbands or sons,
Fathers or lovers, we break them. We are the guns!"
It interested me and I did a little research.
Gilbert (1884-1952) was a volunteer at the start of WW1 and fought at Loos, Ypres and on the Somme.
Despite the bitter tone of some of his poetry he was intensely patriotic and supported the war.
At his own request, perhaps realising that he could not carry on, he was transferred from the front line to staff work on propaganda in Italy at the end of 1916.
His brother, Jack, was killed in November 1917. Gilbert himself was invalided out of the war in February 1918 with shell-shock.
He served in the RAF as a Squadron Leader in World War II.
Fabulous editing and very poignant words. My grandfather was killed at Ypres and David's grandad fought at the Somme. It was at the Somme that he lost his faith in God. He came home from the war a very different person.
Yesterday evening Hubby and I listened to a CD by Eric Bogle. One of the songs that always brings tears to my eyes is this: http://www.irishsongs.com/lyrics.php?Action=view&Song_id=390
I use Picasa, under the collage section the last option is multi-exposure.
p.s. I added the small pics on FastStone.