Where are you going to, laughing men?
For a holiday on the sea?
Laughing, smiling, wonderful men,
Why won’t you wait for me?
God, how I love you, men of my race,
As you smile on your way to a war;
How can you do it, wonderful face
Do you not know what’s before?
Laugh, laugh, you soldier sons
Joke on your way to the war
For your mothers won’t laugh at the sound of the guns
And the tales of the filth and the gore.
Smile and joke young sailor Jack
For it’s the self-same story:
There’ll be no jokes when you come back
And bloody little glory.
10 October, 1939
Picture No.14115557 © Mary Evans / The Graphic
I hadn’t heard of Timothy Corsellis until I watched the new series of David Olusoga’s excellent BBC TV programme A House Through Time. Corsellis’ story features in episodes 2 and 3: he was a remarkable man who decided at a very early age that he wanted to be a poet. I don’t want to spoil the story, and I would urge you to watch the programme, but suffice to say he is now regarded as Britain’s pre-eminent poet of World War II. At some point I will add an extended biography here. In the meantime, please check out A House Through Time.
We don’t have a picture of Timothy here at the library, but we do have a photo of his sister, Mary, who was a remarkable woman in her own right, and also features in Olusoga’s programme, in which he shows the above photo in the very room in the flat in Montague Mansions, near Baker Street, which she shared with her brother during the early years of the war.