Gallipoli Poetry Challenge #7 30/09/2012

I did not post my poetry challenge last week as I could not get to my computer. I am finding myself saddened more and more by the futility of war of the unwillingness of man to learn and grow. I honestly feel that more I am learning (and believe me I am learning)  my heart is bleeding at the idiocy of it all.

Sometimes a picture or a video says more than any words .

photo credits google images

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives…

            you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

          Therefore rest in peace.

          There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets

          to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours..

         You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries

         wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in             peace

         After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

        — Atatürk 1934

Please take a moment to read  the information below  the deaths the injuries incurred during  just one campaign in ‘ THE WAR TO END ALL WARS’ at Gallopoli WW1.

Sadly that war did not end war, WW2 followed by countless other and our troops whether they be involved under their own flag or that of their own flag accompanied  by the blue of the UN still continue.

Gallipoli casualties
Source: Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs

	Dead	Wounded	Total
Total Allies	44,092	96,937	141,029
– United Kingdom [40]	43,000	76,696	119,696
– France (estimated)	10,000	17,000	27,000
– Australia[5]	8,709	19,441	28,150
– New Zealand[5]	2,721	4,752	7,473
– British India	1,358	3,421	4,779
– Newfoundland	49	93	142
Ottoman empire (estimated)	86,692	164,617	251,309
Total (both sides)	130,784	261,554	392,338

Poetry Challenge #7 is to create a journal of links and your reactions to poems by established (living or dead poets.) Details are here.  Example response is here. Mr. Linky for Challenge #7 is directly below

Poetry Challenge #7 01/07/2012 THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

Lord  Tennyson wrote this poem to memorialise the suicidal charge of the light cavalry  Battle of Balaclava (Ukraine) in the Crimean War (1854-56). 247 men of the 637 in the charge were killed or wounded. Britain entered the war, which was fought by Russia against Turkey, Britain and France, because Russia sought to control the Dardanelles. Russian control of the Dardanelles threatened British sea routes.

Another reason that Crimean War is remember is because of Florence Nightingale, who trained as a nurse then trained many more young women and then nursed at the front , experiencing war first hand.

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photo credits http://learnonline-mgs.blogspot.co.uk/

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria’s reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language.

Tennyson was first a student of Louth Grammar School for four years (1816–1820)^[3] and then attended Scaitcliffe School, Englefield Green and King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1827,^[4] where he joined a secret society called the Cambridge Apostles. At Cambridge Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam, who became his closest friend.

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This Sunday I have chosen to highlight Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. I find this a truly sad and honest account of what happened. Again it was generals ordering the troops in, in to the gates hell. It was the Valley of death out of 637 men who entered the charge ( without question or redress) only 247 returned!

As the poem reports they had guns on their left and right and in front of them. Truly a suicidal manoeuvre but as is the soldiers’ lot they obey. These where cavalry so it was not only all of these men but  their horses also. The poor horses must of been terrified too. The noise , bullets, shells,glinting sabres, mud and blood it was truly hell!

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photo credits google images

The Charge Of The Light Brigade

by Alfred, Lord TennysonMemorializing Events in the Battle of Balaclava, October 25, 1854
Written 1854

Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns’ he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

‘Forward, the Light Brigade!’
Was there a man dismayed ?
Not though the soldier knew
Some one had blundered:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed & thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wondered:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reeled from the sabre-stroke,
Shattered & sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

photo credits

Poetry Challenge #7 is to create a journal of links and your reactions to poems by established (living or dead poets.) Details are here.  Example response is here. Mr. Linky for Challenge #7 is directly below: