A lesson to learn
Alison Chisholm explores a poem whose theme of the countless unnamed fighters who lost their lives in conflict makes a plea for change
Alison Chisholm
War, in all its horrors and grief, bravery and cowardice, camaraderie and fear, is one of the themes poets return to over and over. Perhaps the reason for this is summarised in the refrain that runs through The Unknown Soldiers – the fact that the lesson is never learned.
This poem is by Alan Brett of Liphook, Hampshire, a poet who was aware of war from a very young age, as he explains: ‘I was born in the army garrison at Aldershot, Hampshire, and lived through the siege of Malta when my father was posted there. I watched the bombing, death and destruction with childish fascination, not traumatised though it had been filed away in my subconscious’. Recent stressful circumstances stirred up the memories.
The anti-war theme has recurred in Alan’s work and interests. He wrote a number of poems against the Vietnam war that were published in the University Press and national newspapers. He has also been involved with CND, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and the anti-apartheid movement.
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