tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post1704673207750348588..comments2024-02-05T09:17:53.322-08:00Comments on Adrian Barlow's blog: Armageddon and Rupert BrookeAdrian Barlowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04526714501872493961noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post-3956955770576655862014-11-22T08:26:57.756-08:002014-11-22T08:26:57.756-08:00Fascinating piece, Adrian. So much here that I did...Fascinating piece, Adrian. So much here that I didn't know. It makes me reconsider Brooke's patriotic sense of Englishness, expressed famously in "The Soldier", in the context of his European attachments. And I love the idea of responding to the German invasion of France by helping with the French harvest, an idea that anticipates VSO and the Peace Corps, perhaps. Joe Treasurehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452665782271458318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post-10666260966027133302014-11-15T15:42:43.256-08:002014-11-15T15:42:43.256-08:00Tom, this is a very interesting quotation, both fo...Tom, this is a very interesting quotation, both for its anticipation of Owen (a connection I have not seen made before) and for demonstrating how Brooke very quickly came to understand the reality of 20th century warfare, and to lose whatever illusions he may have had - though, as I wanted to show in what I wrote, I think that his view of the war was far more ambivalent - right from the start - than most people assume. Many thanks, AdrianAdrian Barlowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04526714501872493961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post-30072735034663295832014-11-15T15:27:13.949-08:002014-11-15T15:27:13.949-08:00As always, Adrian, very interesting and thoughtful...As always, Adrian, very interesting and thoughtful and original. Thank you! A little footnote - after Brooke's experiences at Antwerp [which included shell-bursts and artillery fire as well as retreating with a vast crowd of Belgian refugees], he wrote: ‘But it’s a bloody thing, half the youth of Europe, blown through pain to nothingness, in the incessant mechanical slaughter of these modern battles.’ The phrase ‘half the youth of Europe’ feels like a curious anticipation of Owen’s ‘half the seed of Europe’ in the Parable of the Old Man and the Young, written in July 1918. tomdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03766237341387024779noreply@blogger.com