ARmy Rumour SErvice

Without wanting to plug one of my favourite websites ;)

You could try

www.forcespoetry.com

Lots on there from servicing and ex forces, familes and those affected by war. There's plenty to choose from and even a couple of books ! It's a not for profit organisation doing with the aim of becoming a full charity.

Sammers.

Originally Posted by itsforcharidee

Looking for a recommendation for favourite war poems - old or new - that would be suitable to read at a charity event in aid of the armed forces.

Thank you...

Arrse poetry thread

Yeats? The closest he got to the war was tutting over his copy of the Irish Independent of a morning. He then slagged off Wilfred Owen - a man who could hardly defend himself what with being a bit dead. Mind you he also slagged off the leaders of the Easter Rising because of his perceived superiority (their inferiority?) on intellectual and class grounds. Snobbish twunt.

However he did win a Nobel prize in 1923 - which proves you can win a Nobel prize and still be a bell-end. On the other hand I seriously like The Second Coming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_(poem)

Originally Posted by Cuddles

Yeats? The closest he got to the war was tutting over his copy of the Irish Independent of a morning. He then slagged off Wilfred Owen - a man who could hardly defend himself what with being a bit dead. Mind you he also slagged off the leaders of the Easter Rising because of his perceived superiority (their inferiority?) on intellectual and class grounds. Snobbish twunt.

However he did win a Nobel prize in 1923 - which proves you can win a Nobel prize and still be a bell-end. On the other hand I seriously like The Second Coming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_(poem)

I'll take your word for that, the poem, however, always seemed apt when I was in Aden, Borneo, Cyprus, etc. Not my problem, not my war...

While on a course this year found this on a Sgts Mess toilet wall.

HEROES

We wear a flower of brightest red
The colour of the blood they shed
Like flowers, they bloomed with youth, and then
They fell - and died, our brave young men.

Gave up their right of growing old
In tropic heat or bitter cold
They died – each lonely in his pain,
Yet each would do the same again.

Through history, in every age,
Men have been found to fill each page
With heroes names – our nations glory
Weep now when you hear their story.

But let the tears you shed be of pride
For the lives they lived and the deaths they died
With every battle which they fought
Our liberty was dearly bought.

When tyrants sought to rule the world
Swords were unsheathed and flags unfurled
From farm and town the young men came
To fight for the cause, in Britain’s name.

At Waterloo, at Vimy Ridge
On Dunkirks beach and Arnhems bridge
On jungle path or desert sand
Or in the Falklands lonely land.

Or on the streets of an Irish City
Where civil strife stirs the nations pity
When the talking fails and it’s time for deeds
Britain will find the men she needs.

They leave their mark; their names live on
Great Nelson, Drake and Wellington
And Bader, “H” … and Ian, Fred
And Sid and Tom and Dick and Ted.

The flowers die but the seed lives on
To bloom again with next years sun
So let it be with the lives they gave
Their spirit must live beyond the grave.

We today must carry high
The flag for which they were proud to die
And let no tyrant ever reign
Their sacrifice must not have been in vain.

Joan Maddern