“The Battle of the Swamps” by Muriel Elsie Graham
Across the blinded lowlands the beating rain blows chill,The trenched earth turns to water, the shell-holes ooze and fill,
A tragic land where little that’s sweet or sane survives –
O hungry swamps of Flanders that swallow up men’s lives!
O numbing nights of Flanders, whose cold breath cannot quench
The grim enduring courage that holds each mud-fouled trench,
That struggles stiffly forward to meet the shattering guns –
O bitter swamps of Flanders that rob us of our sons!
Yet in the sheltered homeland that lies such worlds away,
What shrinking hearts are braving that suffocating clay!
And when on roof and window the rain beats, then – O then,
O deathless swamps of Flanders, our hearts are with our men.
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| A picture of Muriel Elsie Graham. |
Unfortunately for WWI soldiers, they were not Shrek, a semi-friendly, swamp-inhabiting ogre. Unfortunately for me, Muriel Elsie Graham is a female poet, so not much is known about her. Virtually the only information I can find about Graham is the above picture.* From that photo, that I assume is her but cannot verify, she seems to have been a nurse in the First World War. That would put her near battle, and she certainly would have seen injured men during the war and been familiar with battlefield conditions. Even without knowing much about the author, there are still a few big takeaways from this poem.
The third time I read it, I realized Graham never mentions enemy soldiers like so many other WWI poems. This surprised me, because I automatically used enemy combatants in my first interpretation, but their absence is actually incredibly significant. “The Battle of the Swamps” reads like a description of battle. It talks about “swallowing up men’s lives” and “enduring courage” and “tragic land.” Phrases like that make me think about fighting an enemy, but it’s not the German’s that Graham writes about. It’s the swamps, and by extension. the environmental conditions of the battlefield. She describes “beating rain,” “numbing nights,” and the “mud-fouled trench.” These conditions are the enemy; this is what kills the soldiers.
To emphasize that point, I did some outside research into what battlefield and trench conditions looked like in WWI. In class, we have talked about flooding trenches and battlefields that were atop swamps, but seeing it strikes a different chord. I collected some pictures below.
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| The conditions at Flanders, the location referenced in the poem. |
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| A man in the trenches. The man-made holes became their own swamps. |
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| Soldiers carrying the wounded through mud at Passchendaele. |
Additionally, here is a link to an interesting article about the conditions at Passchendaele, a battle infamous for its terrible mud.
Another part of the poem that I would like to highlight is the final stanza, where readers are taken away from the battlefield and to the homeland (probably England). Since this poem is authored by a woman, this change in scenery makes complete sense. Graham says “when on roof and window the rain beats… our hearts are with our men.” I think these two lines are very powerful and express an idea shared by many women: they are suffering through the war too. However, she also captures the nuance of that statement in a previous line when she describes the homeland as “sheltered.” She recognizes that the people at home are not suffering the way soldiers are, but that they aren’t exactly having a grand time either.
The final part of the poem I will touch on is the repeated pattern of the final line of each stanza. “Hungry swamps” that “swallow up men’s lives” is self-explanatory and accurate, but interestingly, it personifies the swamps and makes them feel more like an actual enemy. The second stanza ends with “bitter swamps… that rob us of our sons.” Again this personifies the swamps, almost demonizing them. Then, it is the last stanza that confuses me. It says “deathless swamps… our hearts are with our men.” The last words, I talked about previously, but it is the deathless swamps line that really, really confused me.
I think I puzzled it out but would love to hear other perspectives. Deathless means without death, but more specifically means being immortal. Rather than reading that line to mean that no one dies in the swamps, I think this is saying that swamps and the men who died there are an immortal fixture in the hearts and minds of the English at home.
*https://allpoetry.com/Muriel-Elsie-Graham
I think given the Man vs. Nature aspect of this poem, rather than the Man vs. Man so common in war poetry, you are totally right about the demonization of Flanders. The swamps are personified almost to take the blame off the opposing soldiers, and put it on the terrain. It could be that the speaker knows the Germans are being dealt a similar hand, and pities them as well (and that might also just be pure malarkey, maybe the speaker just doesn't care about the Germans enough to even make them the enemy). Deathless might not mean that the men are immortal, but rather the swamps themselves. Hungry and bitter are used to describe them in the first two stanzas, so it could be that instead of the men being undying because they are remembered, the swamps themselves are immortal. They are titans swallowing the children of Great Britain. However, because the people back home are thinking of their soldiers, the swamps will never truly win.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Shrek's swamp is much more friendly than the one Graham depicts.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if, because of war propaganda, she found it easier to be angry with the land rather than with the land rather than the people who allowed this war to happen.
You mentioned that Graham personifies the swamp, making it feel like an actual enemy. This makes me think about the fact that in many war poems I have seen nature as a piece of hope despite the horrible conditions of the trenches. Though from the pictures you showed it is clear that the swamps of Flanders hold no beauty. I also thought about her depiction of the homeland which you discussed. It was interesting to me that she creates such a division. The homeland brings shelter, but part of her is in the swamps of Flanders, suffering with the men there. This image of women who are not fighting in the war feeling some of the pain of those fighting is one I've seen in many poems. Specifically, the poem "An Incident," Which I blogged on, shows a woman who feels the pain of a wounded soldier. But for these women, it does not seem as if feeling this pain is a choice. While youth is being destroyed in battle, and those they care about are fighting for their lives, the women's own hearts cannot be at peace.