{"id":68,"date":"2009-02-02T21:26:20","date_gmt":"2009-02-02T21:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/?p=68"},"modified":"2010-04-08T15:52:45","modified_gmt":"2010-04-08T14:52:45","slug":"beyond-belief-crusaders-and-first-world-war-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/?p=68","title":{"rendered":"Crusaders and First World War poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found myself (as though it were outside my volition) interviewed for today’s Beyond Belief<\/a> on BBC Radio 4. As the filling in the middle of the sandwich, I didn’t hear the panel’s comments until the broadcast. I’m not entirely sure I agree with the comment that the First World War changed the public perception of chivalry and therefore of the Crusades, but the point about the sentimental invocation of a romanticised past is quite right, as can be heard in The Volunteer<\/a> by Herbert Asquith (1881-1947), who was son of the British Prime Minister: <\/p>\n

And now those waiting dreams are satisfied
\nFrom twilight to the halls of dawn he went;
\nHis lance is broken; but he lies content
\nWith that high hour, in which he lived and died.
\nAnd falling thus, he wants no recompense,
\nWho found his battle in the last resort
\nNor needs he any hearse to bear him hence,
\nWho goes to join the men of Agincourt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The same Great War site<\/a> has a volume called The Holy War<\/a> by the Irish poet and novelist Katharine Tynan which very explicitly portrays death in the War as religious sacrifice. For example, the Dedication <\/em>concludes:<\/p>\n

In this most glorious day and year
\n That gives your man to die for men.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Appearing on Radio 4’s ‘Beyond Belief’ provokes thoughts about Great War poetry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[44,43],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-world-war","category-poetry","tag-bbc","tag-crusaders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}