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The war poets and writers
 As
a huge conflict, the 1914-1918 war caused the death of millions among
the warring nations. For the battle of the Somme alone, which lasted
from 1st July to the 18th November
1916, losses are estimated at 200,000 French, 420,000 British and
420,000 Germans. This unprecedented
violence against men, which had not been thought possible, moved
deeply who witnessed it, both as participants and victims. Hundreds of
them, known as "écrivains combattants" in France, "War poets" in Great
Britain and "Frontdichter" in Germany, attempted then to record their
experiences, their feelings and their thoughts in the face of an
unprecendented reality.
Letters, personal diaries, memories, essays, short stories, novels, collections of poems... the works they created cover a large formal variety. Arising out of the war and in time of war, they constitute nevertheless a very special literary compilation, which in the end makes up a long collective story about the Firts Wold War.
The memories of their individual destinies, which nowadays can be felt in Picardy, is indispensably supported by the Historial de la Grande Guerre.
With close to 600 War Poets, the British occupy an important place in war literature. Many of them, including Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg or Siegfried Sassoon, took part in the deadly assaults of 1916. Their poems pay tribute to all those who lost their lives and are remembered at the Newfoudland Memorial in Beaumont-Hamel and the British National Memorial at Thiepval.
“The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed
With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,
Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.
Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,
They leave their trenches, going over the top,
While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,
And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,
Flounders in mud. O Jesu, make it stop!”
Siegfried Sassoon, Attack, 1917.
Bibliography
In the Somme
Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961) : La Main Coupée (1946).
Georges Duhamel (1884-1966) : Civilisation (1918).
Pierre Mac Orlan (1882-1970) : « Chanson de la route de Bapaume » ; Les Poissons Morts (1917).
Elie Faure, La Sainte Face (1917)
Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) : Calligrammes, poèmes de la paix et de la guerre (1918).
Louis Aragon (1897-1982) : Le Roman inachevé, recueil de poèmes (1956).
Henri Barbusse (1873-1935) : Le Feu (1916).
Roland Dorgelès (1885-1973) : Le Réveil des morts (1923).
Jean Giono (1895-1970) : Le Grand Troupeau (1931).
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) : Écrits du temps de la guerre (1916-1919).
Robert Graves (1895-1965) : Poems about War ; Adieu à tout cela (1929).
John Mac Crae (1872-1918) : « Au champ d’honneur » (1915).
Alan Mackintosh (1893-1917) : « In no man’s land » (1917).
Frédéric Manning (1883-1935) : Nous étions des hommes (1929).
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) : Poems (1920).
Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) : « Lever de jour dans les tranchées » (1916).
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) : « Contre Attaque » (1917) ; The War Poems (1919) ; Mémoires d’un officier d’infanterie (1930).
Alan Seeger (1888-1916) : Poems (1917).
Kurt Heynicke (1891-1985) : « La ballade du feu roulant ».
Ernst Jünger (1895-1998) : Orages d’Acier (1920) ; La guerre comme expérience intérieure (1922) ; Le Boqueteau 125 (1924).
Walter Schäfer (1890-1918) : « Péronne ».
Reinhardt « Johannes » Sorge (1893-1916) : « Grenades » (1916).
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