Conflict Poetry Quotes

Question 1

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Answer 1

Half a league
All in the Valley of Death
Someone had blundered
Into the mouth of Hell
Boldly they rode and well
Left of six hundred
Cannon cannon cannon

Question 2

Exposure

Answer 2

Iced east winds that knive us
Silent…
Dull rumour of some other war
What are we doing here
We turn back to our dying
But nothing happens
Our ghosts drag home
Sudden successive flights of bullets

Question 3

Bayonet Charge

Answer 3

Suddenly he awoke and was running
With his bayonet toward the green hedge
King,honour,human dignity, etcetera dropped like luxuries
Threw up a yellow hare
Cold clockwork

Question 4

Remains

Answer 4

Legs it
Probably armed, possibly not
All of the same mind
His bloody life in my bloody hands
I swear I see every round as it rips through his life

Question 5

Poppies

Answer 5

Like a treasure chest
Intoxicated
Tucks, darts, pleats
Like a wishbone
Graze my nose
Spasms of paper red
Song bird from its cage
Gelled blackthorns

Question 6

War Photographer

Answer 6

All flesh is grass
Running children in a nightmare heat
Blood stained onto foreign dust
They do not care
Ordinary pain
Pick out five or six

Question 7

Kamikaze

Answer 7

He must have
The dark shoals of fishes
And remembered how
My mother never spoke again in his presence
He must have wondered which has been the better way to die