Lot Essay
'The Ancre at Hamel', and 'The Watchers' were published in Blunden's 'Undertones of War' in 1928.
Details
EDMUND BLUNDEN (1896 - 1974)
'A "Holding Attack" During the Somme Offesnive', manuscript poem, signed, of six 4-line stanzas on one sheet, offered for publication [? in the Nation] with the proviso 'To be printed without signature' ('The sworning white of him, and that red! /The bombs in boxes, the craunch of shells, /The second hand flicking round -- ahead! /Come, you, we were born for this, nought else'); and 5 other holograph war poems by Blunden, entitled 'The Ancre at Hamel', 'The Survivors (1916)', 'Reunion in War', 'The Watchers' and 'Behind the Line'.
(6)
'A "Holding Attack" During the Somme Offesnive', manuscript poem, signed, of six 4-line stanzas on one sheet, offered for publication [? in the Nation] with the proviso 'To be printed without signature' ('The sworning white of him, and that red! /The bombs in boxes, the craunch of shells, /The second hand flicking round -- ahead! /Come, you, we were born for this, nought else'); and 5 other holograph war poems by Blunden, entitled 'The Ancre at Hamel', 'The Survivors (1916)', 'Reunion in War', 'The Watchers' and 'Behind the Line'.
(6)