In Memoriam. [WWI]

posted by LockeProposal on TheGrittyPast

One of the most moving First World War poems, Ewart Alan Mackintosh’s In Memoriam, Private D. Sutherland, catches the full responsibility of a relationship [between an officer and his men] which, in Mackintosh’s view, went even beyond paternalism.

Happy and young and gallant,

They saw their first-born go,

But not the string limbs broken

And the beautiful men brought low,

The piteous writhing bodies,

That screamed ‘Don’t leave me, sir,’

For they were only your fathers

But I was your officer.

Note:

You can read the full poem here.

Source:

Holmes, Richard. "Heart and Soul." Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918. London: HarperCollins, 2004. 578. Print.

Original Source Listed:

Quoted in Trevor Royle (ed.) In Flanders Fields: Scottish Poetry and Prose of the First World War (London 1990) p. 79.

Further Reading:

Lieutenant Ewart Alan Mackintosh MC

>One of the most moving First World War poems, [Ewart Alan Mackintosh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Ewart_Alan_Mackintosh.png)’s *In Memoriam, Private D. Sutherland*, catches the full responsibility of a relationship [**between an officer and his men**] which, in Mackintosh’s view, went even beyond paternalism. >>Happy and young and gallant, >>They saw their first-born go, >>But not the string limbs broken >>And the beautiful men brought low, >>The piteous writhing bodies, >>That screamed ‘Don’t leave me, sir,’ >>For they were only your fathers >>But I was your officer. _______________________________ **Note:** You can read the full poem [here](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_treasury_of_war_poetry,_British_and_American_poems_of_the_world_war,_1914-1919/The_Fallen#In_Memoriam). _______________________________ **Source:** Holmes, Richard. "Heart and Soul." *Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918*. London: HarperCollins, 2004. 578. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Quoted in Trevor Royle (ed.) *In Flanders Fields: Scottish Poetry and Prose of the First World War* (London 1990) p. 79. _______________________________ **Further Reading:** [Lieutenant Ewart Alan Mackintosh MC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewart_Alan_Mackintosh)

1 comments

[–] LockeProposal [OP] 0 points (+0|-0)

The part of the poem right before what was quoted here is also very powerful:

Oh, never will I forget you,

My men that trusted me,

More my sons than your fathers',

For they could only see

The little helpless babies

And the young men in their pride.

They could not see you dying,

And hold you while you died.

In Memoriam. [WWI]

1 comments

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