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This
is the first poetry anthology solely devoted to poems written by International
Brigade volunteers. Fully illustrated and with extensive notes, the collection
conveys the idealism and anguish felt by the men and women who risked their
lives to defend democracy against the rise of fascism in Europe.
‘the
most moving, inspirational collection of poetry I have read in many years
… What is it about the International Brigaders that makes their memory and
the recall of their political humanity so relevant today? Courage, a loyalty
to the best within us, a political imagination that thinks with the heart:
the list is long. These qualities shine from this collection, which ought
to be required reading in every school.’
‘their story has often been told by historians
but the poetry in this volume takes us further, providing a hint of the emotional
cost of their commitment to the anti-fascist cause.' Paul Preston
‘This
moving collection of evocative poetry is a fitting tribute to those who had
the bravery and foresight to join the battle against fascism in Spain.’
Jim Jump is a London-based journalist and trustee of the International Brigade Memorial Trust. He is the son of a British International Brigader and a Spanish Republican refugee.
Where
shall we find you, George Brown?
We
shall find you laughing in the mountains of Guadarrama
When
we come back.
We
shall find you at Teruel
When
there’s dancing in the streets.
We
shall find you again in the streets of Madrid,
When
Manchester and Brunete
And
Villanueva de la Cañada have become
One
and the same.
We
shall come again, lorry after lorry, man after man,
In
extended order, marching forward,
To
find you where we left you,
Always
George Brown.
Glory!
What a day that’ll be,
Wonderful,
glorious,
What
a day of wonder!
Every
man will be a poet then
And
every poet be free of his poetry;
Finding
no song is made
For
such a morning!
Anonymous
Alès
Daring
closely even this urban circle
Nightingales
chant, the darkwood night
Is inlaid
with ivory song, while
Towards
the white air of tomorrow
Rises
in slow spiral the sleep of thirty men.
All the
floor¹s a bed,
The straw,
the smell, the kaleidoscopic cockroaches
Never
ravel the curtain of their snores.
Lying
here, your lovers and your haters
Are not
the men, those men, you knew,
The nightingales
throw music over the hour¹s edge
In falls
of ambling volume: they¹ll outlive the town
To be
for many thousand years the same
As on
those thousands of midnights falling
Before
Keats heard their enchanted summons.
We, within
our short tomorrow,
Will
have climbed into the violent ring of powder
Among
guns¹ stream of venom and saw-edged fighting moods,
There
where there¹s a new world¹s door to knock on.
These
men are proud,
Not all
the world, though it knows a nightingale,
Knows
us who hear above all songs
The steps
of an old world going.
May
1937
Miles Tomalin
Published in Association
with International
Brigades Memorial Trust
| December 1936, Spain Alès Sunrise in the Pyrenees, May 1937 Salud! Full Moon at Tierz Before the Storming of Huesca 'Like molten gold the sun on high' Beauty Is Found To Be Ugly The International The Internationalist A Letter from Aragon Spanish Lesson Fuente-O-Venjuna Marching Song of the 2nd Company of the British Battalion International Brigades Dressing Station Granien 'I have stood to upon some lousy dawns' The Battalion Goes Forward On Guard for Liberty A Dying Comrade's Farewell to his Sweetheart To Margot Heinemann Battle of Jarama 1937 The Tolerance of Crows ''Twas postwar stalemate period' Jarama Front Jarama Valley of Jarama Heroic Heart Thinking of Artolas A Moment of War Who Wants War? 'Munitions men' Aragon Ballad 12 July 1937, An Ode to My Comrades Brunete Wings Overhead Sun over the Front Poem in the Summer of 1937 Thaelmann Battalion 'Rest, I will know your all-pervading calm' Lull in War Ebro Crossing Down the Road Full Moon over Barcelona, 1938 To a Fallen Comrade International Brigade Dead To England from the English Dead England Spain, May 1st, 1938 Shared Cigarette Farewell Eyes Song of the Night Market The Nightingale San Pedro 'The dead have no regrets' Retrospect The Hour Glass(1) On the Statue of the Virgin Salud, Brigade - Salud! I Sing of my Comrades 'I wept the day that Barcelona fell' In an Olive Grove Remember For Antonio Tessaro of Padua, Missing in Aragon 1938 Fighter Pilot For Spain and for Sam Wild Jarama Arise Letter from the Underworld 'Have we no Dante for to-day's Aquinas?' Aftermath Monument The Doomed Hasta la Vista, Madrid! Return to Spain Comrades I Wish I Were Back… 'The deserters, all three, complaining' A Tribute 'I have lived in a time of heroes' |
Clive Branson Miles Tomalin Tony McLean Eric Edney John Cornford Frank Brooks Thomas O'Brien Clive Branson Anonymous John Cornford Tom Wintringham Joe Monks Bill Harrington Tom Wintringham George Green Tom Wintringham David Marshall Eric Edney Thomas O'Brien Pat O'Reilly John Cornford John Lepper Charles Donnelly Ralph Cantor Tony Hyndman Lon Elliott Alex McDade Charles Donnelly Ewart Milne Laurie Lee Bill Feeley Anonymous Bill Harrington John Dunlop Miles Tomalin James R Jump Tom Wintringham Aileen Palmer Norman Brookfield Tomalin Ebro James R Jump Tomalin Full Tony McLean Bill Harrington Thomas O'Brien Miles Tomalin Clive Branson Lorenzo Varela (translated by Lon Elliott) James R Jump Bill Harrington Anonymous Ewart Milne Clive Branson Clive Branson Aileen Palmer David Marshall Ewart Milne Clive Branson Anonymous David Marshall Tony McLean Bill Harrington David Martin Tony McLean Jim Haughey Anonymous David Martin Bert Neville Aileen Palmer Tony McLean Miles Tomalin Tom Wintringham Thomas O'Brien Bob Cooney Bill Feeley James R Jump David Marshall Thomas O'Brien Hugh Sloan Joe Monks James R Jump David Marshall |