Poets of World War I

1. Wilfred Gibson (1878-1962)"Back"
They ask me where I've been,
And what I've done and seen.
But what can I reply
Who know it wasn't I,
But someone just like me,
Who went across the sea
And with my head and hands
Killed men in foreign lands...
Though I must bear the blame,
Because he bore my name.

2. This poem talks about how there are many people that never did anything wrong and go to other countries to fight and kill people and many other innocent men die because of one or two people that began to fight. No one is recognized and no one cares what happened to these men, because all they care is winning or losing, these generals or officers don't care that the life of these people's families will never be the same and they'll have to live without that person that fought in the war forever. The author of the poem explains that all soldiers are considered the same when they are different people, because they think that no one is going to notice if they are heroes or if they die.

3. Wilfrid Gibson was born in October 1878, the son of a Northumberland pharmacist. Gibson found a voice that was very much his own. Gibson joined the British Army but remained in England. Unlike most other poets who were officers, Gibson wrote poetry from the point of view of the ordinary foot soldier. After the First World War Gibson continued to write poetry and plays. Gibson's work was particularly concerned with the poverty of industrial workers and village labourers. Sympathetically portraying the struggles and miseries of ordinary working-class people, they engage with unemployment, poverty, illness, illegitimate birth, bereavement, and domestic violence.