Amazing what you can stumble across when traversing the internet. I came across this website of War Poets when following a Google search to my site for Wilfrid Gibson’s The Stone, which I had posted back in October because it is one of my favorites—if only out of nostalgia.
The site identifies a stone memorial unveiled in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey in 1985 honoring sixteen of England’s poets of the first World War, many of whom were killed in action at a quite young age, and surprisingly one, Rupert Brooke, was eulogized by Churchill although this was thought to be more of a political showing (as what is not?) than of Brooke’s record as soldier or poet.
It’s quite interesting though, and brings one into a mood of patriotism rare to us today. Sadly, I feel as if the most sincere if misguided passions of war demonstrated of late is that of the terrorists of September 11th. Admirable and inspiring of course, are the young men and women in our military who believe that it is their duty to serve and protect against the slaughter of innocent people based upon such a difference of opinion, and the injustice of man’s inhumanity to man.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology