In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:
> Yes, but why are we commemorating the Somme with quotes from Rupert Brooke and not Wilfred Owen. The purpose of these ceremonies with generals, royals, and prime ministers is to tell the old lie to another generation of ardent children.
"Glorious?
In the days long gone by
When the 1st S.A.I.
Took part in a battle laborious
‘Mid Delville Wood’s trees
With a vertical breeze
I don’t recollect feeling glorious.
When the battle was o’er
And we’d counted the score
It didn’t feel very victorious
With most of our band
In a far better land
Not one of us said it was glorious.
When a pal fell down dead
With no top to his head
We may have used language censorious
But whatever we said
As we looked at our dead
I’m certain we never said glorious".
Harry Goodwin - A soldier from the First South African Brigade who fought at Delville Wood on the Somme.
However I don't believe the Remembrance Day ceremonies encourage the "old lie" or seek to glorify war. I suggest they do precisely the opposite and drum home the horrors of war as a lesson to future generations.
The really sad part that in the last 100 years it's a lesson humankind hasn't been able to learn.
Did you see the Tower of London popies last year? I went up to see them. I had blandly read histories of great battles and hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded, but really had no concept of just what 850,000 people actually looked like. It was a grey November day when I visited the Tower and walked around the moat. There were 850,000 ceramic poppies in it - the number of British and Commonwealth Dead from the Great War.
It was an overwhelming and sobering sight.