Poets Flog It! Travels Around Britain


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Flog It has taken me to all corners of the British Isles.

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It's been a wonderful opportunity to meet some fantastic people

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and delve into our illustrious past.

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In Britain we have a great literary tradition

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and poetry is a key part of that.

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Over the years, I've had the chance to follow in the footsteps

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of some of my favourite poets.

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And on this journey, I learn how the horrors of war

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have left their mark on two young writers and unearth the true passion

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of a Dorset poet best known for his novels.

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But firstly, I discover which of Britain's great romantic poets

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was inspired by this stunning landscape.

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The Lake District is home to some of the most spectacular scenery

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to be found anywhere,

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but for centuries, people didn't really see the beauty in the region.

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Instead, they considered its peaks and crags

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wild, savage and terrifying.

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All that began to change in the middle of the 18th century

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when observers looked at the region with new eyes.

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Amongst them was a great name in British poetry -

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William Wordsworth.

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Wordsworth was a member of what became known as

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the English Romantic Movement in the arts.

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He and his fellow poets and painters found inspiration

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in the power of nature in all its awesome glory.

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The romantics moved away from the structural, intellectual

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approach of the 18th century - which is sometimes known now

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as the age of reason or the enlightenment -

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towards ways of looking at the world which recognised the importance

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of the imagination and the emotions.

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The epic themes of poems by their forerunners,

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such as John Milton's Paradise Lost, where rejected by the romantics.

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They felt that poetry should be inspired by just ordinary events.

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In fact, one of Wordsworth's most famous poems

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was inspired by a communal garden plant

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and it grows in abundance during the spring.

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I wandered lonely as a cloud

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That floats on high o'er vales and hill

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When all at once I saw a crowd

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A host of golden daffodils

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Beside the lake, beneath the trees

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Fluttering and dancing in the breeze

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Continuous as the stars that shine

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And twinkle on the Milky Way

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They stretched in never-ending line

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Along the margin of a bay

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Ten thousand saw I at a glance

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Tossing their heads in sprightly dance

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And then my heart with pleasure fills

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And dances with the daffodils.

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Place and family were central to Wordsworth.

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Both in his poetry and his own life and he spent his happiest years here

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at Rydal Mount with his wife and children, his sister and his sister-in-law.

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The marvellous thing is, his descendants today

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still refer to this place as home.

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A servant once said to a visitor,

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"This is my master's library where he keeps all his books.

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"His study, well that, that's out of doors."

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And to this day, visitors come in their droves to Rydal Mount

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to pay tribute to one of English literature's greatest sons.

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300 miles south in Dorset, I had the pleasure of visiting the home

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of another of Britain's most famous poets - Thomas Hardy.

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Although, as a writer, he's better known for his novels

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such as Tess Of The D'Urbervilles and Far From The Madding Crowd.

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Hardy was born in this cottage just outside Dorchester in 1840.

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He lived here and grew up here

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with his family of stonemasons and builders.

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In his novels, he liked to describe real settings

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as the scenes for the plots.

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And in Under The Greenwood Tree published in 1872

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the cottage was described like this...

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"It was a long low cottage with a hipped roof of thatch

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"having dormer windows breaking up into the eaves,

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"a chimney standing in the middle of the ridge

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"and another at each end.

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"The window-shutters were not yet closed

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"and the fire and candle-light within radiated forth

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"upon the thick bushes..."

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After leaving school, Hardy became an apprentice to an architect

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and spent five years working and living in London.

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But his real passion was writing.

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So he returned to Dorset to try to get his books published.

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Towns, villages and buildings throughout the county

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are all recognisable from Hardy's novels.

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In The Mayor Of Casterbridge,

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Casterbridge is a thinly disguised Dorchester.

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The story centres around Michael Henchard

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who sells his wife and his daughter when he gets drunk.

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18 years later, they return to the town to find out that he's become

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the Mayor and is presiding over dinner here, in The King's Arms.

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"A spacious bow window projected into the street over the main portico,

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"and from the open sashes came the babble of voices,

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"the jingle of glasses, and the drawing of corks."

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I've come to Dorset County Museum

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to see some of Hardy's treasured possessions

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and talk to museum director, Judy Lindsay.

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Now, Hardy didn't come from a very wealthy background, did he?

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No, he didn't. He was born to a labouring family

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in the village of Bockhampton.

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And, although he describes his cottage as seven-bedroomed

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and rambling, it was still very much a labourer's cottage.

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When did he start to write novels?

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Thomas Hardy published his first novel in 1871.

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He had written one previously, The Poor Man And The Lady,

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but he'd failed to find a publisher for that.

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So the first novel he wrote was Desperate Remedies.

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He followed that up, however, with a much more popular novel

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and the one which really bought him public acclaim -

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Under The Greenwood Tree.

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Looking around the room, I notice a cello there

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and a couple of violins and there's one here.

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Did he actually play the violin?

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He started to play the violin aged only eight.

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He played for the Stinsford Band, which was a church band

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and it was very much a family tradition for him to do that.

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His father, grandfather and uncle all played in the string band.

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This was his violin.

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-May I hold this?

-Yes, you may.

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Wow, Hardy's violin.

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You really couldn't put a value on something like that.

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In antiques we talk about provenance and its history

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which adds to the value and I don't think it gets much better than this,

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-does it?

-No.

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We're very lucky in that all of the items in our Thomas Hardy collection

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-come with excellent provenance.

-Yeah.

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Tell me a little bit about the pens.

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Thomas Hardy was self conscious enough to label some of the pens

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that he wrote with so that we would know which pens he used

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to write which novels and poems.

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This one is labelled "Tess", as in Tess Of The D'Urbervilles.

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And this one is The Dynasts,

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which was his epic poem about the Napoleonic wars.

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Wow.

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Thoughtful chap, passing on his legacy there and then, really.

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Very much so.

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You mentioned his manuscripts, can we have a look at them?

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-Of course we can.

-You'll have to put your white gloves on to do that.

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-So if I move the violin...

-Thank you.

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..just to there.

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So this is the manuscript of The Mayor Of Casterbridge

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and this is a bound copy of the original manuscript.

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-So it's extremely precious.

-Wow.

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And one of the things I think is particularly lovely

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is that inside the cover, is says, "Presented by Thomas Hardy."

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Very distinctively his own signature.

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And there's also a note here saying, "Hand it on to the museum."

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Gosh, how exciting! Can you turn a page...please.

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I can, yes.

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When you research Thomas Hardy for any period of time

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you become so familiar with the handwriting

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it's absolutely distinctive.

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-Is he buried here in Dorset?

-When Thomas Hardy died,

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his family were very keen that he would be buried here

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and his heart was actually taken from his body

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and interred at the church in Stinsford

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which is very close to Bockhampton where Hardy grew up.

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The rest of his body was cremated and the ashes were interred

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in Westminster Abbey in Poets Corner which is particularly fitting

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because many people see Thomas Hardy as a novelist.

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Those who know his work better are aware that Thomas Hardy

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-saw himself first and foremost as a poet.

-Yeah.

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Some of the most arresting poetry of the 20th century

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was composed during the First World War.

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Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen are two of the most celebrated authors

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of this period, but both with contrasting and opposing approaches.

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Brooke was a student here at the historic Rugby School

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where I met with English master, Richard Smith.

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Richard, tell me a little bit about Rupert Brooke, the man himself.

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I know he used to mix with the Bloomsbury set

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so he was certainly in with the in crowd of the day.

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Yes and even before he leaves Rugby and goes to London

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and starts mixing with that Bloomsbury group of writers,

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he was a popular man at school. He mixed with the in crowd at school.

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Later he was described by another poet, Yates,

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as the most handsome young man in England.

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So perhaps that's one reason why he was so popular.

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Very fashionable guy. So, school, he obviously had,

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what, a ball in one hand and a book in the other?

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Yeah, he was a bit of an all-rounder.

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And he went off to fight in the First World War?

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Did he see any action?

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No. He died before he saw any action.

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He died in 1915 on his way to Gallipoli.

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He was quite excited about joining in, listing up,

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representing his country, wasn't he?

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Yes, I think that's one of the reasons why Brookes poetry

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is so different from the other First World War poets

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-simply because his poetry reflects that early optimism.

-Yeah.

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-Euphoria of fighting in a war.

-Being the hero.

-Yes.

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Blow, bugles, blow!

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They brought us for our dearth

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Holiness lacked so long

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And love and pain

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Honour has come back as a king to earth

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And paid his subjects with a royal wage

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And nobleness walks in our ways again

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And we have come into our heritage.

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It was believed that the war would be over by Christmas

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so there was that gung-ho attitude of fighting for king and country.

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Which is certainly reflected in his most famous war poem, The Soldier.

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If I should die think only this of me

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That there's some corner of a foreign field

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That is for ever England

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There shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed

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A dust whom England bore shaped and made aware

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Gave once her flowers to love her ways to roam

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A body of England's breathing English air

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Washed by the rivers blest by suns of home.

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Well, obviously, history tells us it was awful.

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In fact, it was a bloody mess and Brooke didn't see any of that.

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Yes, you're right. He was removed from the very worst of it.

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There's nothing like sitting in a cold damp trench like

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other poets like Wilfred Owen. Perhaps Wilfred Owen's poetry

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is more arresting for a modern readership, simply because

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he describes those terrible conditions.

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Wilfred Owen is probably Britain's most celebrated war poet.

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He enlisted in 1915 and was sent to the front

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where he saw heavy fighting and appalling conditions.

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His poems revealed how many soldiers spent much of the war

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huddled in trenches in all weathers.

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Our brains ache

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In the merciless iced east winds that knife us

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Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent

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Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient

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Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,

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But nothing happens.

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That winter of 1917 was particularly bad.

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Icy cold winds, relentless rain,

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I mean, that must've cut right through you.

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It's quite amazing to think such poignant works were produced.

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Yes and such beautiful words as well, from such horror.

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Because of his experience of fighting,

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Owen hated the idealistic views of writers like Brooke,

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who bought into the Latin philosophy -

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Dolce et decorum est pro patria mori -

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It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country.

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Am I right in thinking that Owen was sent home

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suffering form shell shock?

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Yes, he goes to a military hospital up near Edinburg

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called Craiglockhart.

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There he meets another famous First World War poet -

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Siegfried Sassoon - who had been decorated for bravery at the front,

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but had become disillusioned with the war.

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It's Sassoon who really encourages Owen to publish his works.

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-They formed a friendship, a bond.

-Yes.

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So, what happened to them both?

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Sassoon survives, he lives into the 1940s.

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Even during the Second World War he's writing poetry.

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Owen, poignantly, dies the week armistice is declared.

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It's said that his mother opened the telegram on the 11th November.

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-So it's quite a sad story.

-That is so sad.

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A sad ending and a sad loss to English poetry.

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Yep.

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