Voices from Stone and bronzey
In her second poetry collection Caroline Davies turns her attention to the war memorials of London France and Wales Voices from Stone and Bronze brings to life those who fought and died and those who survived including some of the sculptors who had themselves come through trench warfare to a changed world Meticulously researched and deeply humane these narrative poems apply a lyrical sensibility without sentimentalism a deeply affective collection Voices from Stone and BronzeCaroline Davies was born in Norfolk to Welsh parents She has a Diploma in Literature and Creative writing awarded with distinction by the Open University She blogs occasionally here You can follow her on Pinterest and Facebook Her seond poetry collection Voices from Stone and Bronze was published by Cinnamon Press in 2016 It is inspired by the war memorials of London France and Wales Voices from Stone and Bronze brings to life those who fought and died and those who survived including some of the sculptors who had themselves come through trench warfare to a changed world Meticulously researched and deeply humane these narrative poems apply a lyrical sensibility without sentimentalism a deeply affective collection Her first collection Convoy was inspired by the experiences of her grandfather James Jim Honeybill who was a merchant seaman He was with the Blue Funnel line and served on M. Book Voices from Stone and bronzed V Ajax during the Malta convoys This is a short book of beautifully forged poems about the people in the first and second world wars Ms Davies has clearly very carefully researched and sensitively delivered vignettes of these people. EBook Voices from Stone and bronzed The presentation is unusual in that many of the poems are written in the first person becoming the voice of the soldier sculptor or family member This makes their stories feel very immediate and somehow crosses the cultural and historical gap I recognised my grandparent s generation in the way her characters spoke and in their attitude to life. Book Voices from Stone and bronzer The first poem struck me hard as a mother myself I felt for the woman whose strong healthy child was now just a name on a memorial It wasn t just the waste of a fine young man and the life they had but also the loss of times they would have had together The people who were left behind had to be courageous too and are often not seen. Voices from Stone and bronzer palette The poems then start looking at the war memorial statues Imagining the sculptor and the sitter the conversation they may have had The memories and flash backs the sitter has remind you that this was a real soldier who had to fight for his life kill or be killed as many of his friends were This leads to the statues coming to life the banter they have amongst each other and of course their war experiences relived as in post traumatic stress They look down at present day life and seeing a homeless man sense that he was an ex soldier possibly traumatised by war and also suffering with PTS. Kindle Voices from Stone and bronze There are many short individual stories that bear witness to the everyday horror of life at war the collection of identity discs from decaying corpses what it felt like to be shot at and the mud at the bottom at the trenches The story of the brave soldier who repeatedly retrieved wounded soldiers under fire they survived but he did not It made you think about the value this brave man had put on these soldier s lives and the enormity of the waste of life. Book Voices from Stone and bronze chandelier Another poem about soldiers having masks made to hide their damaged faces as if by hiding their faces their stories could become acceptable It would never work these men were never going to be the same again it just seemed to put another burden onto these unfortunate brave men who had suffered already so much. Voices from Stone and bronzeville soul War is a dark subject sometimes gruesome and gory but lightened by a heightened sense of emotion and pity Caroline writes with quiet confident words that don t dramatise or sentimentalise war but are still full of emotion I was particularly struck by Gone to War someone who enjoyed writing lifted from ordinary life to the trenches and his death. Voices from Stone and bronzeville soul com English Voices From Stone and Bronze is a new collection from Caroline Davies and is published by Cinnamon Press It is a collection of individual poems and poetry sequences as well as some striking black and white photographs exploring the horror and pity of war to borrow Wilfred Owen s words via some of the sculpted images both metaphorical and solidly actual commemorating The First World War. Voices from Stone and bronzesmith The collection begins with the poem The Litany in which a mother listens to the roll call of the dead being read from a war memorial as takes place during Remembrance Sunday services She has to look down as the roll call begins. Voices from Stone and bronzesmith Thomas Arnold G Arthur Caffrey Thomas Cudworth T Owen Daviesand then the moment of her son s name when she raises her head According to the notes at the back of the collection the names come from the Machynlleth War Memorial. Voices from Stone and Bronze kindle paperwhite The collection ends with the poet musing on a name from perhaps the most iconic of all war memorials the Menin Gate In this case the soldier on the memorial and in the poem s title For Victor at The Menin Gate is the poet s great uncle Robert Victor Davies 1897 1917 who was killed on the Pilkem Ridge on 31st July 1917 Given that the first poem of the book concludes its memorialized list of the dead at the name before the nameless son s name is listed T Owen Davies perhaps the two poems are paired echoes of the same death across time There is certainly a powerful resonance at work. Voices from Stone and bronzesmith The narrative poems forming the core of the collection explore The Great War using as source material actual war memorials and the biographical and historical information of those involved in the making of the statues and memorials either as sculptor or model There is a gravitas to these poems that is anchored in their historical truth as well as the poetic tone. Voices from Stone and bronzesmith Sometimes Davies s imagination steps back from the purely historical into the fictional and even the surreal as in the lengthy poem The Euston Road Mob The poem is based on the London and North Western Railway Company memorial at Euston Station but the characters of the four human statues are imagined in order to let each of the statues speak in a series of interlocking verses There are four of us. Voices from Stone and bronzesmith I m Albert and I spent the war at sea There s Percy who was in the infantry and my pal Frederick of the Royal Artillery and George He wears the Royal Flying Corps uniform George has cobwebs covering his face or so Percy says We don t know how he died I wish they d come to clean him up but that won t happen until wreath laying time I expect he went fast plummeted from the sky The tone of the language and the poems whether lyric or prose is clean simple even stark which both contrasts with and highlights the emotive complex and frequently horrific issues being dealt with. Book Voices from Stone and bronzed This is a strong collection of poems in praise of those who gave their lives for their country and a warning against the horror and waste that war unleashes English A remarkable collection of poetry inspired by WW1 memorials and a personal quest We are halfway through the centenary years of WW1 and that has led many to pause and look behind the grim facts searching for glimpses of real people I have been on a personal quest myself searching for my grandfather one of the Old Contemptubles who succumbed to his destroyed lungs in 1921 at just 28 years old That I found Caroline s poems deeply moving is perhaps unsurprising The subject matter alone would have been enough but coupled with the careful crafting of words they draw the reader in to read on What did constantly surprise me was the stories she has uncovered the people behind the memorials sketched out so vividly in just a few words This slim volume succeeds in briefly bringing back to life many whose names and stories were on the verge of slipping away forever In highlighting a few individuals so many others around them are honoured too English Voices from Stone and Bronze Caroline DaviesTo my mind Voices from Stone and Bronze is an extraordinary self referential piece of work Caroline Davies is a narrative poet and in Voices she uses the poetry to tell the story of how the individual poems came to be The Voices of the title come via her imagination from the sculptors sitters and subjects of a number of WW1 war memorials interspersed with the author s own reflections on her experiences of walking the battle fields The author explores beyond the surface of the memorials to the story beneath These structures are often seen or perhaps not seen as mere street furniture things we pass without a second thought As I read I came and to feel that the essence of the book reflects the author s included dedication to military historian and researcher par excellence Jeremy Banning in which she says You bring back the dead so they walk with the living. Voices from Stone and bronzewood golf For me that is exactly what Caroline Davies is doing here In The Sculptor and The Fusilier based upon The Royal Fusilier City of London Regiment Memorial at Holborn Bar in London we meet Albert Toft the sculptor together with Sergeant Cox who is believed to have modelled for the statue The poem tells the story of how Cox served and survived despite seeing those around him killed The sculptor says he is happy with Sgt Cox as his model because he Has none of the scars tremors or blemishes of the others Still carries himself like a soldier Oh the irony in this observation In his turn the sergeant tells him when he sees the brand new uniform he is to wear which is in stark contrast to the reality of his experience The last time I wore khaki My skin was crawling with lice And indeed the thought implants itself as throughout the early stages of the sitting standing the sergeant constantly scratches at the back of his neck Whether it is because of imagined lice or the itchiness of the new uniform is a moot point Further reference to the work of the sculptor and how he or she can restore the ravages of battle crop up elsewhere In the batch of poems sourced from The Euston Road Mob London and North West Memorial Euston Station we see Percy an Infantry Man repeat several times I died on the barbed wire You can t see that now. Voices from Stone and bronzesmith I am as I wasbefore that moment of being impaled my guts spilling out Throughout the book the language is plain but that does not mean it cannot shock as we see from the foregoing Every now and again will come a word a phrase which pulls the reader up short The remains of a fine brave man on a shovelJust a heap of maggoty stuff and bones. Voices from Stone and bronzeware This is what war means This from the voice of Private J McCauley 2nd Border Regiment After being issued with SS456 Burial of Soldiers who is tasked with the job of searching for dead bodies and burying them but not before he and his team have plunged their hands into rotting flesh in search of the identity discs so that the men are not buried as unknown or known unto God as their grave stones will later be marked Particularly poignant for me was Caroline s reference to Peter Barton Peter Barton s Lessons of History in which she shares his reminder of a universal truth that we do well to remember This history is not the whole truth Only the ground the archaeology the archives can reveal these men in their trench in their tunnels on this map at the point where history abandoned them Voices from Stone and Bronze is not an easy read but every poem carries a powerful underlying message There is so much I could say but I think now is the time to let the book speak for itself as it undoubtedly does Anyone with even a casual acquaintance with the Great War will find this collection an eye opener which adds in no small measure to their understanding English A remarkable and moving book If like me you are interested in the experience of the The Great War and the effect it had on the people who lived through it then this is well worth reading The remembrance of that war can be seen in every city town or village in the UK in the form of War Memorials Caroline Davies has imagined the thoughts of some of the people involved in the building of the memorials and also on the thoughts of the statues representing the fallen The result is a series of poems that show the personal stories behind the public mourning English
| Voices from Stone and Bronze By Caroline Davies |
| 1910836249 |
| 9781910836248 |
| English |
| 96 |
| Paperback |
| Book Voices from Stone and bronzer |
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., Voices from Stone and bronzepony sparkle The final words Your poems rise like ghosts of men is what this book is about to me, Voices from Stone and bronzey The sculptor with his one good eyehas made me a man again.Reviewed by Candide on www.whisperingstories.She knows all of them each name every family.Pulled whole from the furnace