War Poets - WWI & WWII

[smallhobbit]

Our second day began with a visit to Agny Military Cemetery to see the grave of the poet Edward Thomas.  I only came across him recently and I'm not that keen on his poems, but others rate him highly - it all depends on personal preferences.



From there we went to Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Memorial.  This is a beautifully kept area in memory of the Newfoundlanders who died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.  It's staffed by young people from Canada who come over for three months to work there.  The statue is of a female caribou looking out over the battlefield and mourning the loss of her young.



After lunch in Albert we drove the 300km down to Normandy.  Ordinarily the journey would have been tedious, but sitting in an air conditioned coach when the temperature outside was in the low 30Cs was much appreciated.

Our first visit on the second half of our trip was to Ranville Military Cemetery



where John Jarmain is buried.  Most of Jarmain's poetry was written in North Africa, but he died in Normandy.



From there we travelled on to our hotel in Oisterham and I walked down to the beach - one of the D-Day landing beaches, Sword Beach which is one of those the British forces landed on.

Comments

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

The beaches look very moody and atmospheric! But it looks like you had blue skies, too, sometimes. I like the deer! So many interesting statues.

[smallhobbit]

We had a lot of blue sky. It was evening when I was on the beach, which is why it looks moodier, earlier it would have been bright blue. Yes, the statues are impressive.

[rusty_armour]

Your photos are wonderful, and I've learned a lot from this post! I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't heard of the Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Memorial before (or else I'd forgotten about it). It's nice to know that it's staffed by young Canadians. The statue of the female caribou is both beautiful and poignant.

[smallhobbit]

It's a beautiful monument, so well kept and it's lovely to see that young Canadians are still interested in what happened.

[solosundance]

Rain by Edward Thomas is not my favourite WWI poem, but it's quite high up. 'Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain on this bleak hut, and solitude, and me...' that line comes into my head every time it rains on me. I remember visiting Albert and Beaumont Hamel when on a battlefields trip with my auntie years ago. We went to find Wilfred Owen's grave but like you I hadn't come across Edward Thomas at that stage so didn't go there.

The Sword Beach picture is very atmospheric - those open expanses of sand and sky. Beautiful and sad.

[smallhobbit]

'Rain' was new to me.

I'm glad you like the pictures of Sword Beach. It was early evening so the light was ideal for atmospheric photos.