{"id":1740,"date":"2014-09-04T13:09:30","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T13:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warpoets.org.uk\/splashpage\/?page_id=1740"},"modified":"2014-09-04T13:09:30","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T13:09:30","slug":"when-this-lousy-war-is-over","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/warpoets.org.uk\/splashpage\/resources\/for-teachers\/when-this-lousy-war-is-over\/","title":{"rendered":"When This Lousy War is Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last chapter of No More Parades<\/em> the hero, Christopher Tietjens, is being promoted to certain death by being made second in command of Colonel Partridge\u2019s regiment in the 6th battalion of General Perry, commanding the 16th section. He is told by his godfather, his father\u2019s oldest friend, commanding officer General Edward Campion that \u2018The second in command of a battalion has nothing to do but sit about in arm-chairs waiting for the colonel to be killed.\u2019 Tietjens knows the reality and recalls a moment from October 1916:<\/p>\n

It is unbearable: it is that that has ruined us\u2026The mud!…He had heard these words, standing amidst volcano craters of mud, amongst ravines, monstrosities of slime, cliffs and distances, all of slime\u2026
\nAnd the slime had moved\u2026.
\nThe moving slime was German deserters\u2026
\nIn advanced pockets of mud, in dreadful solitude amongst those ravines\u2026suspended in eternity, at the last day of the world.<\/p>\n

This picture recalls the scenes from Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/em> and it is thought-provoking to compare this nightmare vision with a passage from Wyndham Lewis\u2019s account of the war in his autobiographical book Blasting and Bombardiering<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Ford said to me \u2018When this war\u2019s over nobody is going to worry six months afterwards, what you did or didn\u2019t do in the course of it. One month after it\u2019s ended, it will be forgotten. Everybody will want to forget it\u2014it will be bad form to mention it. Within a year disbanded \u2018heroes\u2019 will be selling matches in the gutter. No-one likes the ex-soldier\u2014if you\u2019ve lost a leg, more fool you!\u2019
\n\u2018Do you think that? I said, for he almost made my leg feel sorry for itself.
\n\u2018Of course,\u2019 he answered. \u2018It\u2019s always been the same. After all the wars that\u2019s what\u2019s happened.\u2019
\nThis wordly forecast was verified to the letter.<\/p>\n

Ian Brinton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last chapter of No More Parades the hero, Christopher Tietjens, is being promoted to certain death by being made second in command of Colonel Partridge\u2019s regiment in the 6th battalion of General Perry, commanding the 16th section. He is told by his godfather, his father\u2019s oldest friend, commanding officer General Edward Campion that  Continue Reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":817,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n