FOOTNOTE:
[1] Two days later, in the train for Copenhagen, I gave up my seat willingly to a little boy with a face of great intellectuality, who was obviously in a very delicate state of health. This was accepted gratefully for the lad by the two Danish gentlemen who had him in charge. They told me that he was the son of Herr Duncker, Professor of Philosophy in the Berlin University, and one of the leaders of the Spartacusbund; that they were taking him to Copenhagen, where his elder brother already was, partly because he was suffering from malnutrition, but principally for safety, neither his father nor mother expecting to survive the Revolution. A sister of eighteen or nineteen stays with her parents. The boy’s guardians also informed me that the lad, who was only nine years old, already wrote verse which would not be discreditable to a young man, and that his brother had in a few months become the chief scholar in the Copenhagen school.
BALLADS OF BATTLE
AND
WORK-A-DAY WARRIORS
By Lieut. JOSEPH LEE
SOME PRESS OPINIONS
The Times.—“There is real fibre and lifeblood in them, and they never fail to hold the attention.”
The Spectator.—“Of the verse that has come straight from the trenches, the Ballads of Battle are among the very best.”
Morning Post.—“There is staunch stuff in this little book of verse from the trenches.... Here is a soldier and a poet and a black-and-white artist of merit, and we wouldn’t exchange him for a dozen professional versifiers who ... cannot write with a spade or draw with a bayonet or blow martial music out of a mouth-organ.”
Manchester Guardian.—“There is no shadow of doubt but that Sergeant Joseph Lee’s Ballads of Battle are the real thing.... In its way this little book is one of the most striking publications of the war.”
Leeds Mercury.—“Many war poems have been published of late, but few approach the Ballads of Battle in point of imagination, and vitality of expression. There is a grim realism in the Sergeant’s poems, as well as an intensity of vision that is at times almost startling.”
The Bookman.—“Sergeant Lee is in the succession, spiritual descendant of those balladists and lyricists who have made the name of Scotland bright.... As for the manner of the book, it is good—it is very good, it is notable.”
Glasgow Herald.—“Sergeant Lee’s verses are as frank and straight as we would wish a soldier-poet’s work to be; but behind all the humour and grim realism there is a poet’s ideal humanised by a Scot’s tenderness, and the serious poems are worthy of any company. Their courageous cheerfulness is inspiring.”
The Tatler.—“A little volume which I shall always hope to keep. Mostly these vivid little poems were composed well within the firing line; all of them are haunting—some because of their jocular soldier-spirit, others for their wonderful realization of the silent tragedy of war.”
Sheffield Telegraph.—“A human, throbbing thing from the trenches. It strikes vibrant notes of laughter and tears; now it weeps, and now it is full of the exuberant joy of life; it is a living document authentic and deep.”