Past, Present, and Future: An Analysis of "Ballad of the Three Spectres" by Ivor Gurney

"Ballad of the Three Spectres" by Ivor Gurney

As I went up by Ovillers
In mud and water cold to the knee,
There went three jeering, fleering spectres,
That walked abreast and talked of me.

The first said, ‘Here’s a right brave soldier
That walks the dark unfearingly;
Soon he’ll come back on a fine stretcher,
And laughing for a nice Blighty.’

The second, ‘Read his face, old comrade,
No kind of lucky chance I see;
One day he’ll freeze in mud to the marrow,
Then look his last on Picardie.’

Though bitter the word of these first twain
Curses the third spat venomously;
‘He’ll stay untouched till the war’s last dawning
Then live one hour of agony.’

Liars the first two were. Behold me
At sloping arms by one – two – three;
Waiting the time I shall discover
Whether the third spake verity.



Even before the Great War, Ivor Gurney was not well. He suffered from manic-depression and had experienced a nervous breakdown, but he still went off to fight. Though he survived through the end of the war, in 1922 he was institutionalized before dying 15 years later of tuberculosis. Through it all, Gurney continued to write poetry and compose music, including “Ballad of the Three Spectres.”*

Ivor Gurney

A ballad is a form of poetry that tells a story in a series of stanzas (2 or more) that are able to be put to music and sung. Though this poem was not put to music like some of Gurney’s other works, this piece certainly tells a story.*

When I first read “The Ballad of the Three Spectres” I thought immediately of three Fates in the Disney movie Hercules.  

The Fates in Hercules who all share a single eye.

Of course, the legend of the Fates did not originate from an animated Disney film but from Greek mythology. According to myth, the Fates (or Moirai) are three female spinners who control the destiny of mortals, spinning the string of each person’s life and cutting it when it is time for them to die. Atropos represents the past, Clotho the present, and Lachesis the future.** A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is another famous literary work that tells a story through three mystical beings.

A more traditional interpretation of the three Fates
spinning the yarn of someone's life.

In Gurney’s poem, the idea of the Fates and overall tone seems to suggest a lack of control over one’s own future, and I think he was trying to convey the lack of control soldiers felt about their prospects while fighting in the war.

Diving deeper into the poem reveals more meaning. Starting in the second stanza, each spectre is given its own voice. The first seems to be commending Gurney’s bravery, but likely the spectre actually speaks in a sarcastic tone because of his references to blighty wounds. These were injuries bad enough to get a soldier sent home but not kill or seriously maim.^ Such injuries could be self-inflicted, intentionally done to survive. The spectre is saying that perhaps Gurney will do the cunning and cowardly thing to survive the war.

Then, the second spectre presents an outlook that is even bleaker, suggesting that the author will freeze to death in the mud. In other words, one fate for a soldier is to be a coward and the other is to die. It’s not a great outlook, but there’s still one other possibility. Maybe spectre three has something positive to say?

Actually, the final is the cruelest of them all, saying “‘He’ll stay untouched till the war’s last dawning/Then live one hour of agony.’” This probably refers to a common fear of surviving until the end of the war only to die, slowly, in the final days.^

These statements all relate back to the Fates as the past, present, and future. The first spectre (past) discusses blighty wounds. Gurney was wounded twice in the war, meaning at some point he was taken out of combat before returning. In a sense, blighty wounds are his past. The second Fate (present) talks about the cold and dying while in the trenches. If Gurney wrote this poem while in the trenches, he was talking about a very present fear. The final, however, looks to the future. The war has not yet reached an end. The last stanza provides an open-ended conclusion to the ballad, where Gurney must wait to see if what the third spectre says about the future is true.

In my first reading, before doing prior research, I read the words of the last spectre to have a different meaning than I discussed above. While not as literal, I took the words to mean Gurney could survive the war, only to live the rest of his life tortured by it. I really like this idea because it adds a mystical air to the piece where the spectres prediction does come true. Gurney is haunted by the war, and that combined with his other mental illnesses causes him to be institutionalized.

However you interpret this poem, I think there is an overarching theme that for soldiers there is no good fate in war, not that they really get to control their destiny anyway.


*https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ivor-gurney
**https://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/The_Fates/the_fates.htmlhttps://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/The_Fates/the_fates.html
^https://movehimintothesun.com/2011/04/22/ballad-of-the-three-spectres-ivor-gurney/