News Reel on Embarkation
by Timothy Corsellis
Where are you going to, laughing men?
For a holiday on the sea?
Laughing, smiling, wonderful men,
Why won’t you wait for me?
God, how I love you, men of my race,
As you smile on your way to a war;
How can you do it, wonderful face
Do you not know what’s before?
Laugh, laugh, you soldier sons
Joke on your way to the war
For your mothers won’t laugh at the sound of the guns
And the tales of the filth and the gore.
Smile and joke young sailor Jack
For it’s the self-same story:
There’ll be no jokes when you come back
And bloody little glory.
ANALYSIS
Alliteration
- Why wont you wait for me? (stanza 1, line 4)
- And the tales of the filth and the gore. (stanza 3, line 4)
Assonance
- How can you do it, wonderful face (stanza 2, line 3)
- Laugh, laugh, you soldier sons (stanza 3, line 1)
Repetition
- Laugh, laugh, you soldier sons (stanza 3, line 1)
INTERPRETATION
He was criticizing the new soldiers who had never experienced
a war beforehand as he could see all of them laughing and joking
around on the way to the battlefield.
INSPIRATION
a) World War 2 happened
b) He refused the "Bomber Command" assignment as he wouldn't bomb innocent civillians
POET BIODATA
Name: Timothy John Manley Corsellis
Born: 30th January 1921
Died: 10th October 1941
Occupation (s): Air raid warden, Pilot with Air Transport Auxiliary
Life events:
- After father’s death in an air crash in 1930, Timothy was sent to Winchester College
- He contributed poems to the school magazine and fenced
- Leaving school to start work as an articled clerk
- Registered in April 1939 as a conscientious objector on religious grounds
- He became an APR warden as war broke out
- He refused the “Bomber Command” assignment because he wouldn’t take part in the
indiscriminate bombing of civilians - His request to join Fighter Command was met with an honourable discharge
- His application to join the Fleet Air Arm was ignored
- But he was accepted by the Air Transport Auxiliary
- The aircraft he was flying on October 1941 stalled and crashed in Scotland