Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets: "And one by one, reluctantly, The living come back slowly from the dead"
By Alun Lewis
()
About this ebook
Alun Lewis was born on 1st July 1915 at Cwmaman, near Aberdare in the Cynon Valley in the South Wales Coalfield.
His parents were both school teachers at llanwern. Lewis was one of four children; a younger sister, and two brothers.
He was enthusiastic about writing from an early age. Lewis won a scholarship to attend Cowbridge Grammar School and from there went on to the University College of Wales and obtained a first in history in 1935. From there he went to the University of Manchester on a Pickles Research Fellowship and obtained his M.A in 1937.
Lewis first tried his hand at journalism but when he didn’t succeed he turned to work as a supply teacher.
In 1939, Lewis met Gweno Ellis, a teacher, whom he later married on 5th July 1941.
Lewis was committed to pacifism but with the outbreak of World War II these principles were overcome by his desire to confront and defeat the evils of fascism. Enlisting, in 1940, he joined the Royal Engineers but then for reasons unknown he sought and gained a commission in an infantry battalion.
In 1941 he collaborated with artists John Petts and Brenda Chamberlain on the ‘Caseg broadsheets’. These were inspired by chapbooks and broadside ballads and featured original woodcut artwork by Petts and poetry from prominent Welsh poets of the time including Dylan Thomas. Lewis was keen to create affordable literature for the masses. Unfortunately, sales were few and funds soon ran out.
His first published book, in 1942, was the poetry collection ‘Raider's Dawn and Other Poems’. The same year a collection of short stories, ‘The Last Inspection’ followed. To round out the year he was dispatched to India to serve with the 6th Battalion of the South Wales Borderers.
Lewis' poems about the war and his experiences certainly relay and explore many facets. His poetry is testament to his talents that have him rightly regarded as one of Britain’s most promising War Poets albeit on the thinnest of publications.
By 1944 he was a lieutenant in Burma fighting the Japanese. What followed next has been interpreted in several ways. On 5th March 1944 he was found, with a gun shot wound to the head, near the officer’s toilets. One account says he had been washing and shaving and then, it seems, tripped and accidentally shot himself. Indeed, that was the official version written up by the army. Another, and perhaps more plausible account classes it as a suicide, the gun was still in his hand. Fatally wounded he survived for another 6 hours.
Whatever the truth as to how or why Alun Lewis died on March 5th, 1944. He was 28.
Related to Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets
Related ebooks
Joseph Conrad - A Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove in the Blitz: The Long-Lost Letters of a Brilliant Young Woman to Her Beloved on the Front Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Creed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret City: "Don't play for safety - it's the most dangerous thing in the world." Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Culture & Anarchy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelected Poetry of World War One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCity of Discontent: An Interpretive Biography of Rachel Lindsay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poets in Their Youth: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burning Man: The Trials of D. H. Lawrence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth Century (1918) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFable in the Blood: The Selected Poems of Byron Herbert Reece Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Art: Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5POEMS (from the Great War) - 23 of WWI's best poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dolphin: Two Versions, 1972-1973 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Life of Robert Burns Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Forties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Old Poets: Reminiscences and Opinions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRaiders' Dawn: "On death and beauty―till a bullet stopped his song" Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Carry On: Letters in War-Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Colonial Consequences: Essays in Irish Literature and Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeginner's Luck Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Essential Anne Wilkinson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Tongue is My Own: A Life of Gwen Harwood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carry On: Letters in Wartime Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Girl (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Novel of F W Harvey: The Lost Novel of F. W. Harvey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Devils and Canon Barham: Ten Essays On Poets, Novelists and Monsters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Poetry For You
Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love Her Wild: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things We Don't Talk About Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poems That Make Grown Men Cry: 100 Men on the Words That Move Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way Forward Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Poems of John Keats (with an Introduction by Robert Bridges) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Thoughts: An Exploration Of Who We Are Beyond Our Minds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Prophet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dream Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Inferno: The Divine Comedy, Book One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Better Be Lightning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Collection of Poems by Robert Frost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twenty love poems and a song of despair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (ReadOn Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rope: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Odyssey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Not Taken and other Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leaves of Grass: 1855 Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets - Alun Lewis
Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets by Alun Lewis
Alun Lewis was born on 1st July 1915 at Cwmaman, near Aberdare in the Cynon Valley in the South Wales Coalfield.
His parents were both school teachers at llanwern. Lewis was one of four children; a younger sister, and two brothers.
He was enthusiastic about writing from an early age. Lewis won a scholarship to attend Cowbridge Grammar School and from there went on to the University College of Wales and obtained a first in history in 1935. From there he went to the University of Manchester on a Pickles Research Fellowship and obtained his M.A in 1937.
Lewis first tried his hand at journalism but when he didn’t succeed he turned to work as a supply teacher.
In 1939, Lewis met Gweno Ellis, a teacher, whom he later married on 5th July 1941.
Lewis was committed to pacifism but with the outbreak of World War II these principles were overcome by his desire to confront and defeat the evils of fascism. Enlisting, in 1940, he joined the Royal Engineers but then for reasons unknown he sought and gained a commission in an infantry battalion.
In 1941 he collaborated with artists John Petts and Brenda Chamberlain on the ‘Caseg broadsheets’. These were inspired by chapbooks and broadside ballads and featured original woodcut artwork by Petts and poetry from prominent Welsh poets of the time including Dylan Thomas. Lewis was keen to create affordable literature for the masses. Unfortunately, sales were few and funds soon ran out.
His first published book, in 1942, was the poetry collection ‘Raider's Dawn and Other Poems’. The same year a collection of short stories, ‘The Last Inspection’ followed. To round out the year he was dispatched to India to serve with the 6th Battalion of the South Wales Borderers.
Lewis' poems about the war and his experiences certainly relay and explore many facets. His poetry is testament to his talents that have him rightly regarded as one of Britain’s most promising War Poets albeit on the thinnest of publications.
By 1944 he was a lieutenant in Burma fighting the Japanese. What followed next has been interpreted in several ways. On 5th March 1944 he was found, with a gun shot wound to the head, near the officer’s toilets. One account says he had been washing and shaving and then, it seems, tripped and accidentally shot himself. Indeed, that was the official version written up by the army. Another, and perhaps more plausible account classes it as a suicide, the gun was still in his hand. Fatally wounded he survived for another 6 hours.
Whatever the truth as to how or why Alun Lewis died on March 5th, 1944. He was 28.
Index of Contents
PART ONE: ENGLAND
Dawn On the East Coast
Corfe Castle
Compassion
A Welsh night
Westminster Abbey
Jason and Medes
Infantry
Song
Encirclement
Song
Crucifixion
Sacco Writes to His Son
Goodbye
PART TWO: THE VOYAGE
The Departure
On Embarkation
A Troopship in the Tropics
Chanson Triste
Song (On Seeing Dead Bodies Floating Off the Cape)
Port of Call, Brazil
PART THREE: INDIA
To Rilke
By the Gateway of India, Bombay
The Way Back
Karanje Village
The Maharatta Ghats
Holi (The Hindu Festival of Spring)
The Journey
Ways
Village Funeral: Maharashtra
Water Music
Shadows
Home Thoughts From Abroad
In Hospital, Poona (I)
In Hospital, Poona (II)
Indian Day
The Peasants
Observation Post, Forward Area
Burma Casualty
The Unknown Soldier
Peasant Song
Wood Song
The Island
Motifs
Bivouac
The Jungle
The Assault Convoy
The Raid
A Fragment
Midnight in India
Alun Lewis – A Concise Bibliography
Foreword
The common people do not understand poetry, are shy of poetry, and though they have been taught to admire the true poets of the past are loath to admit that the race is not yet