Which English poet kind of criticised himself when in 1918 he published a short poem suggesting that in the Great War soldiers had died because of the lies of their fathers?

Triviaballer

The short poem Screens seems to indicate general distrust about the motives for engaging in the War. Screens was written by Winifred Letts. http://www.laurahird.com/newreview/warandglaur.html May 15 07, 11:35 PM

Flem-ish

I was thinking of a more precise reference to lying fathers, and to a poet whose son was actually killed in the war. May 16 07, 12:45 AM

lanfranco

At first, I thought you might be referring to Wildred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est," which expresses this idea, but the dead son makes me think -- Rudyard Kipling: If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied. http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Anthology/Kipling/Epitaphs.htm May 16 07, 7:19 AM

Flem-ish

It must have been very painful for the great defender of the British Empire and of a certain type of heroism ("If", written for his son) that the Great War turned out to be such an unheroic mess. Another epitaph in the same vein is "The Dead Statesman", which has the line: "I lied to please the mob". Kipling may have realised that he too had to some extent been a father of "lies", or at least of a certain somewhat dangerous cult of national pride.Owen was a victim of such "lies", not a begetter. May 16 07, 12:58 PM