1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:08,719 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,160 Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson 4 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:18,800 Speaker 2: and I'm Holly Frye. Before we start today's episode, We're 5 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:19,960 Speaker 2: going to Morocco. 6 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:22,440 Speaker 1: Yeah, in November. 7 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:27,040 Speaker 2: In November, Yes, November fourth through fifteenth, twenty twenty five. 8 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:32,440 Speaker 2: There are still some spots available. I think they are 9 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:35,800 Speaker 2: all spots for people traveling as a pair, whether that 10 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 2: is a couple or friends, or some other option that 11 00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:45,599 Speaker 2: involves two people siblings, right, parent and child. Right, all right, 12 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:49,760 Speaker 2: you're adventurous. Yeah, you could share with a stranger, and 13 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:55,080 Speaker 2: our friends that defined destinations would work that out for you. Yes, yes, 14 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 2: I know. They were getting in touch with some of 15 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:00,680 Speaker 2: the folks that were booked as individuals to see if 16 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:03,400 Speaker 2: they might be open to that. Some of our prior 17 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 2: trips we've had some more flexibility in terms of being 18 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:09,760 Speaker 2: able to add rooms of different types, but this time 19 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:14,640 Speaker 2: the hotel spaces are more predetermined and fixed. 20 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little more it's a little less flexible, 21 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 1: a little more limited. Yeah, but also yeah, perhaps the 22 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:21,600 Speaker 1: most fun ever. 23 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 2: Yeah. We're also both incredibly excited about it. We're gonna 24 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 2: be staying in nice hotels and also one night of 25 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:36,600 Speaker 2: desert glamping. The desert glamping accommodations also incredibly nice breakfast 26 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:39,720 Speaker 2: is included every day. Also lots of dinners and a 27 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:43,360 Speaker 2: number of lunches included, and we will have professional guides 28 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:46,600 Speaker 2: the whole time showing us the sites, telling us all 29 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:51,240 Speaker 2: about what we're seeing and experiencing. And this also has 30 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 2: some fun activities that are very unlike activities we have 31 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:59,240 Speaker 2: done on our previous trips, including number one, a sunset 32 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:04,240 Speaker 2: camel ride, a wine tasting, and there's a tilemaking in 33 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 2: craft's workshop and a Moroccan cooking class. My spouse is 34 00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:11,600 Speaker 2: extremely excited about that one. He loves to cook and 35 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 2: already knows some Moroccan dishes and is very excited to 36 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:19,960 Speaker 2: learn more. So if this sounds fun to you, it 37 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:22,280 Speaker 2: sure does sound fun to me. You can go to 38 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:27,600 Speaker 2: Defined Destinations dot com and if you click on the 39 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:31,360 Speaker 2: tour's button in the menu, it's the one called a 40 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:34,839 Speaker 2: Taste of Morocco and again that is from November fourth 41 00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 2: through fifteenth, twenty twenty five. More information at Defined Destinations 42 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 2: dot com. And now we'll get to today's episode. It's 43 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 2: been a while since we have talked about a poet 44 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:52,920 Speaker 2: on the show, especially a poet whose work is in 45 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,160 Speaker 2: the public domain so we can read as much of 46 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:58,280 Speaker 2: it as we want as part of the episode. And 47 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:01,640 Speaker 2: I really do love to talk about poets. This one 48 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 2: is Wilfred Owen and is considered to be one of 49 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:08,280 Speaker 2: the most important English language poets of World War One. 50 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:11,919 Speaker 2: His work was also seen as part of a shift 51 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:16,800 Speaker 2: and how a lot of British poets were writing about war. Also, 52 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:21,360 Speaker 2: his life almost seems like it was intentionally written to 53 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:25,360 Speaker 2: be as tear jerking as possible. Like if you were 54 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,880 Speaker 2: writing a movie about a World War One soldier poet 55 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:32,959 Speaker 2: and you wanted it to be really sad, that would 56 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,280 Speaker 2: be Wilfrid Owen. So Wilfrid Edward Salter Owen was born 57 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 2: on March eighteenth, eighteen ninety three in Oswestree, Shropshire, in 58 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:44,560 Speaker 2: western England. This is on the border with Wales, and 59 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:47,680 Speaker 2: before the fifteen thirties it was part of England at 60 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:51,840 Speaker 2: some points and Wales at others. Various street names and 61 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 2: other place names there reflect both English and Welsh influences, 62 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:58,920 Speaker 2: and a lot of families in the area, including Wilfred 63 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 2: Owen's family have both English and Welsh ancestry. Wilfrid was 64 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 2: the oldest of four siblings. The others were Harold, Colin 65 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:11,960 Speaker 2: and Mary. Their father, Thomas known as Tom, was a 66 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 2: railroad station master and had previously been a seaman. Their mother, 67 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:21,880 Speaker 2: Harriet Susan Shaw Owen, went by Susan and was devoutly religious. 68 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:25,920 Speaker 2: When Wilfrid was born, they were living at Plas Wilmot, 69 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:30,400 Speaker 2: which is a villa that belonged to Susan's father, Edward Shaw. 70 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:33,880 Speaker 2: The oldest part of the villa had been built around 71 00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 2: eighteen twenty nine, and it had been added on to 72 00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 2: over the years, including a stable, a coach house, a 73 00:04:40,279 --> 00:04:44,159 Speaker 2: wash house, a servant's cottage and a kitchen, and the 74 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:47,080 Speaker 2: grounds also had a garden and a pond. 75 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 1: The Shaws had been financially comfortable, or at least they 76 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:56,359 Speaker 1: had seemed to be financially comfortable, but when Wilfrid was four, 77 00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:59,839 Speaker 1: Edward died and the family learned that he had actually 78 00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:03,240 Speaker 1: been and in serious debt. They had to auction off 79 00:05:03,279 --> 00:05:06,440 Speaker 1: Plus Wilmot, along with all of its furniture and effects 80 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:09,560 Speaker 1: to pay off those debts, and then the family moved 81 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:12,600 Speaker 1: to Birkenhead, across the River Mersey from Liverpool. 82 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:17,839 Speaker 2: Wilfrid surely noticed the change in his family's circumstances, but 83 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:21,400 Speaker 2: since he was only four, he probably did not fully 84 00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:25,600 Speaker 2: understand all of it. But his mother really struggled with it, 85 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,279 Speaker 2: especially since some of her family had already thought that 86 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 2: her marriage to Wilfrid's father had been a step down. 87 00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 2: She had very high ambitions for Wilfrid from the time 88 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:41,359 Speaker 2: that he was born, and this loss of income and 89 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:45,279 Speaker 2: status probably played a part in how really insistent she 90 00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 2: was that he makes something of himself. Wilfrid was a thoughtful, 91 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:54,320 Speaker 2: sensitive boy, and he was interested in literature and poetry 92 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:57,799 Speaker 2: from an early age. He liked other subjects as well, 93 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 2: including botany, geology and art archaeology. He and his cousins 94 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:07,400 Speaker 2: Vera and Leslie Gunston started their own three person Astronomical, 95 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:13,000 Speaker 2: Geological and Botanical Society in nineteen hundred. Wilfrid started attending 96 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,239 Speaker 2: a boys school called the Birkenhead Institute, where he developed 97 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:20,159 Speaker 2: a reputation for being a very serious student. When the 98 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:23,719 Speaker 2: family moved to Shrewsbury which some people also say Shrewsbury, 99 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:27,840 Speaker 2: he transferred to Shrewsbury Technical School and he graduated from 100 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 2: there in nineteen eleven. Boy did I try to figure 101 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:35,760 Speaker 2: out if there is a pronunciation people like best? And 102 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:40,600 Speaker 2: I found many of each of them in recorded examples. 103 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,800 Speaker 2: Wilfrid wanted to continue his education and he passed the 104 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:49,200 Speaker 2: matriculation exam at London University. He did not do well 105 00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:52,159 Speaker 2: enough to earn a scholarship, though, and his family didn't 106 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:54,719 Speaker 2: have the money to pay for it. Without one, he 107 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:58,720 Speaker 2: took correspondence classes while trying to find work to support himself. 108 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,000 Speaker 2: He thought that he might become a poet or an artist, 109 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:05,200 Speaker 2: but his mother was really adamant that whatever he did 110 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:09,520 Speaker 2: to distinguish himself needed to come along with a steady income. 111 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 2: As we said, Wilfrid's mother was devoutly religious and he 112 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:17,000 Speaker 2: was very very close to her. This may have been 113 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 2: one of the reasons why he started thinking about pursuing 114 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:23,760 Speaker 2: some kind of religious vocation. He started working as a 115 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:26,520 Speaker 2: lay assistant for the Vicar of Dunstan, which is west 116 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:28,040 Speaker 2: of London. Outside of reading. 117 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: This was an unpaid position and Owen was working in 118 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:35,720 Speaker 1: exchange for room and board, and that work included attending 119 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:38,040 Speaker 1: all of the church services, of which there were many, 120 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:41,360 Speaker 1: and working with the people of the parish. He also 121 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 1: took some botany classes at University College Reading, and he 122 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:48,000 Speaker 1: was fond of the romantic poets like John Keats and 123 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:51,760 Speaker 1: Percy Shelley, and his first poems were largely derivative of 124 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 1: their work. 125 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:57,040 Speaker 2: By nineteen thirteen, it had become clear to Owen that 126 00:07:57,120 --> 00:07:59,840 Speaker 2: a life in the Anglican Church was not for him. 127 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 2: He was passionate about poetry in a way that he 128 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:07,480 Speaker 2: wasn't about religion, but he had also become disillusioned with 129 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,840 Speaker 2: the church. One reason was that he thought the church 130 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,480 Speaker 2: was not meeting its obligations to the poor. He was 131 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:17,520 Speaker 2: working with people who were sick and living in poverty 132 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:20,880 Speaker 2: and just desperately needed help. While the vicar had a 133 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 2: pretty comfortable life in the vicarage, Owen also developed some 134 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:29,240 Speaker 2: kind of respiratory condition, possibly related to living and working 135 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:31,680 Speaker 2: in damp, moldy spaces. 136 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:34,600 Speaker 1: He left his position with the vicar, and after he 137 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:39,040 Speaker 1: recovered from his respiratory illness, Owen went to France For 138 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:42,480 Speaker 1: about a year. He taught English at Berlitz School in Bordeaux. 139 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: Then he started working for the Lege family tutoring their daughter, 140 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:50,000 Speaker 1: Nanette and helping Madame Lege practice her English ahead of 141 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:55,400 Speaker 1: a planned trip to Canada. Owen was also essentially Ninette's playmate, 142 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:58,160 Speaker 1: since she didn't really have anyone else to play with. 143 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: Owen lived with the and shared most of their meals, 144 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:04,160 Speaker 1: but he was not otherwise paid. 145 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:09,160 Speaker 2: World War One started not long after Owen met the 146 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:12,120 Speaker 2: la Jais, but the area where they were staying was 147 00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:15,520 Speaker 2: kind of remote. It was close to the border with Spain. 148 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:20,360 Speaker 2: News traveled slowly there, and while they did see newspaper 149 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 2: reports about things like the assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand 150 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:28,360 Speaker 2: and Sophie, Duchess of Hollenberg, a lot of this reporting 151 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:32,040 Speaker 2: was more like propaganda than a really accurate account of 152 00:09:32,040 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 2: what was going on, so it wasn't immediately clear to 153 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:40,120 Speaker 2: them just how things were escalating in other parts of Europe. 154 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:43,800 Speaker 2: In August of nineteen fourteen, the Lages introduced Owen to 155 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:48,599 Speaker 2: a friend of theirs, poet, essayist and translator, Laurent Taliad. 156 00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:51,800 Speaker 2: This was probably the first time Owen had met a 157 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 2: published poet in person. Taiad gave lectures in the nearby 158 00:09:55,960 --> 00:10:00,199 Speaker 2: town of Bagnel de Bijour, which Owen attended. One of 159 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:04,439 Speaker 2: the subjects that naturally came up was the war. Taliad 160 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:08,160 Speaker 2: had written at least two pacifist essays, but during one 161 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:12,520 Speaker 2: of these lectures, he framed French soldiers as fighting to 162 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:16,559 Speaker 2: defend the treasure of the French language, as well as 163 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:20,720 Speaker 2: the reason and intellect of French poets and philosophers like 164 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:25,480 Speaker 2: Voltaire and Montesquieu. He also described listening to the work 165 00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:28,720 Speaker 2: of French poets in the French language as an act 166 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:33,280 Speaker 2: of patriotism. Owen would later share a similar sentiment and 167 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:36,120 Speaker 2: a letter to his mother saying quote, do you know 168 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:39,560 Speaker 2: what would hold me together on a battlefield? The sense 169 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:42,720 Speaker 2: that I was perpetuating the language in which Keats and 170 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 2: the rest of them wrote. The Liges knew about Owen's 171 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:49,720 Speaker 2: aspirations as a poet, and they invited Taliade to stay 172 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:52,480 Speaker 2: with them at the villa. He was there off and 173 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:56,560 Speaker 2: on for several weeks. Owen wrote to his mother that 174 00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:59,800 Speaker 2: Taliad received him like a lover, and some of his 175 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:03,720 Speaker 2: descriptions of the poet also have this tone that could 176 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:07,440 Speaker 2: be read as erotic. We don't have the full content 177 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:11,160 Speaker 2: of these letters, though, parts of them were heavily redacted, 178 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:15,280 Speaker 2: probably by Wilfrid's brother Harold, who censored many of Wilfrid's 179 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:18,959 Speaker 2: letters before they could be published or placed in archives. 180 00:11:19,640 --> 00:11:23,440 Speaker 2: It is clear that Taliad had an influence on Owen 181 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:27,520 Speaker 2: beyond their shared sentiments about the war and language and poetry. 182 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:32,240 Speaker 2: Taliad introduced Owen to the work of French poets and writers, 183 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:37,480 Speaker 2: including Gustave Flaubert. Taliad's own work was influenced by poets 184 00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:40,720 Speaker 2: like Malarmee and Baudlaire, and Owen tried to translate some 185 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:42,599 Speaker 2: of that work into English. 186 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:46,439 Speaker 1: In September of nineteen fourteen, as Madame Leje was preparing 187 00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:50,640 Speaker 1: to leave for Canada, Owen and the legs went to Bordeaux. 188 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:54,880 Speaker 1: This is when Owen started to realize just how serious 189 00:11:54,920 --> 00:11:59,520 Speaker 1: the situation with the war was. As German forces had advanced, 190 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:03,360 Speaker 1: the French government had retreated from Paris, and Bordeaux was 191 00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:07,719 Speaker 1: temporarily acting as the capital. The university where Owen had 192 00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:10,520 Speaker 1: planned to take some courses, had been closed and it 193 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,920 Speaker 1: was taken over by the war ministry. The Berlitz School, 194 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:17,080 Speaker 1: where he had planned to resume teaching, had closed as well. 195 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:21,080 Speaker 1: Madame Lejee left for Canada in October and that put 196 00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:23,600 Speaker 1: an end to Owen's job with the family, and at 197 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:27,280 Speaker 1: that point he went to stay with other friends. Owen 198 00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:30,440 Speaker 1: kept working on his poetry and trying to support himself 199 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:34,280 Speaker 1: through tutoring. He became increasingly conflicted about the war and 200 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:38,080 Speaker 1: whether he should go back home and enlist, although at 201 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:41,000 Speaker 1: the same time he was concerned about whether the trip 202 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:44,760 Speaker 1: across the Channel would be more dangerous than just staying 203 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:48,800 Speaker 1: in France. He also had a series of illnesses, including 204 00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:52,720 Speaker 1: one that might have been measles. Owen returned to the 205 00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:57,199 Speaker 1: UK in May of nineteen fifteen, not to join the military, 206 00:12:57,640 --> 00:12:59,960 Speaker 1: but to represent a perfumer that he had been working 207 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,760 Speaker 1: looking for at a trade fair being held in London. 208 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:07,040 Speaker 1: He returned to France the following month. A lot of 209 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:10,199 Speaker 1: people had expected World War One to be over pretty quickly, 210 00:13:10,360 --> 00:13:12,360 Speaker 1: and he didn't want to go through the drudgery of 211 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:14,880 Speaker 1: training only for the war to be over by the 212 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:18,560 Speaker 1: time he was done. He finally decided that if the 213 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:21,440 Speaker 1: Dardanelle Strait was still held by the Ottoman Empire in 214 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:25,400 Speaker 1: September of nineteen fifteen, he would return home and enlist. 215 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:29,560 Speaker 1: We talked about this strait and its strategic importance in 216 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:32,959 Speaker 1: our episode on the Gallipoli Campaign, which was the Allied 217 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,800 Speaker 1: effort to take control of the strait and occupy the 218 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:40,760 Speaker 1: Ottoman capital of Constantinople. That episode came out on November thirtieth, 219 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:46,520 Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. The Dardenell Strait was not opened by that September. 220 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:49,800 Speaker 1: The Gallipoli Campaign was a failure for the Allies and 221 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:53,360 Speaker 1: it ended in a series of nighttime evacuations that started 222 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:57,640 Speaker 1: in December of nineteen fifteen. By that point, Wilfred Owen 223 00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:00,360 Speaker 1: had gone back to England and joined the army, and 224 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:12,160 Speaker 1: we will get to that after a sponsor break. At 225 00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:15,760 Speaker 1: the very beginning of World War One, the UK had 226 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:19,080 Speaker 1: been somewhat divided on the question of whether to become 227 00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:24,240 Speaker 1: actively involved in the war. Opinions shifted through July and 228 00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:27,880 Speaker 1: early August of nineteen fourteen, with Britain declaring war on 229 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:32,040 Speaker 1: Germany on August fourth of that year. After Germany's declarations 230 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:36,840 Speaker 1: of war against Russia and France, Britain called for volunteers 231 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:39,960 Speaker 1: to increase the size of its military, and initially that 232 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:43,880 Speaker 1: response had been really enthusiastic, but a year later there 233 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:47,280 Speaker 1: was no end to the war in sight, and enlistment 234 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:52,160 Speaker 1: numbers had really plummeted. Britain would eventually have to conscript 235 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:57,120 Speaker 1: soldiers to make up for immense losses due to illnesses, injuries, 236 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:01,200 Speaker 1: and death, but in the meantime, men who had not 237 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:06,640 Speaker 1: enlisted were facing enormous pressure to do so and criticism 238 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:10,960 Speaker 1: for having not done it already. This was really everywhere. 239 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:14,960 Speaker 2: It was in newspapers and recruitment posters and other government propaganda, 240 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:19,160 Speaker 2: and conversations with friends and family, and even sometimes just 241 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:21,520 Speaker 2: comments from random passers by. 242 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:25,360 Speaker 1: If Wilfred Owen had returned to England and tried to 243 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:28,720 Speaker 1: enlist shortly after the start of the war, he probably 244 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:31,280 Speaker 1: would have been rejected. He was just a little over 245 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:35,120 Speaker 1: five feet five inches tall, and in September of nineteen fourteen, 246 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:38,880 Speaker 1: authorities had raised the minimum height limit to five foot 247 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:42,240 Speaker 1: six to help deal with the surge of prospective recruits. 248 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:46,080 Speaker 1: The hype minimum had later been lowered again, and it 249 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:48,240 Speaker 1: was five foot two by the time he arrived at 250 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:52,320 Speaker 1: the London headquarters of the Artist's Rifles on October twentieth, 251 00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:55,960 Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen. Were a physical and he was sworn in 252 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:56,680 Speaker 1: the next day. 253 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:01,720 Speaker 2: The Artists' Rifles had been founded by art student Edward 254 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:05,960 Speaker 2: Starling in eighteen fifty nine. As that name suggests, it 255 00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:10,720 Speaker 2: was originally a volunteer regiment for artists. By this point 256 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:15,080 Speaker 2: it had evolved into an officer training regiment. When Owen 257 00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:17,720 Speaker 2: had been in London for that trade fair, he had 258 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:21,920 Speaker 2: seen an announcement saying that gentlemen returning from abroad could 259 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:25,280 Speaker 2: earn a commission through the Artist's Rifles, subject to their 260 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:30,200 Speaker 2: age and their fitness. After finishing his officer training, Owen 261 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:33,640 Speaker 2: was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment, and 262 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:37,200 Speaker 2: not long after that he was deployed to France. His 263 00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:41,680 Speaker 2: initial letters home sound optimistic and almost cheerful about being there, 264 00:16:41,760 --> 00:16:44,720 Speaker 2: although not so much about the enlisted men he was 265 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:48,760 Speaker 2: supposed to be leading. As we mentioned earlier, he was 266 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:52,400 Speaker 2: a sensitive person. He was thoughtful and bookish, and while 267 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:55,480 Speaker 2: his family hadn't had the money to send him to university, 268 00:16:55,960 --> 00:17:00,280 Speaker 2: he still had more education than most British men his age. 269 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:04,320 Speaker 2: He described his men with terms like hard headed, loudish 270 00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:07,640 Speaker 2: and ugly, but he was also confident that he could 271 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:10,680 Speaker 2: trust them in combat, and he seems to have earned 272 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,840 Speaker 2: their respect in part by being a very good shot. 273 00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:19,639 Speaker 2: Owen wrote numerous letters to his mother and to other people, 274 00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:22,680 Speaker 2: but especially to his mother while he was in the army, 275 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:25,920 Speaker 2: and they had worked out some codes ahead of time 276 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:28,280 Speaker 2: so that he could get around the censors who were 277 00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:32,159 Speaker 2: reviewing all the mail. For example, in letters that he 278 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:35,640 Speaker 2: wrote himself, he would use the word mistletoe, and then 279 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:40,280 Speaker 2: specific letters from the following words would spell out his location. 280 00:17:41,480 --> 00:17:44,880 Speaker 2: They also agreed on a use for pre printed British 281 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:49,440 Speaker 2: Army Field Service postcards. These had spaces for the soldier's 282 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:52,560 Speaker 2: name and the date of the last letter that soldier 283 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,400 Speaker 2: had received from the person they were writing to. Those 284 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:59,240 Speaker 2: were the only things allowed to be written on the card. 285 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:03,800 Speaker 2: Everything else was communicated through crossing out the lines that 286 00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:07,720 Speaker 2: were not applicable, so these cards were pretty optimistic in 287 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:10,960 Speaker 2: their framing. The first line was I am quite well 288 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:14,520 Speaker 2: and while the next section was about being hospitalized, The 289 00:18:14,560 --> 00:18:17,359 Speaker 2: options for how the soldier was doing in the hospital 290 00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:21,120 Speaker 2: were either and am going on quite well or and 291 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:25,280 Speaker 2: hoped to be discharged soon. Owen and his mother had 292 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:27,720 Speaker 2: agreed that if he was being sent to the front, 293 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:30,320 Speaker 2: he would send her one of these postcards, and he 294 00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:33,000 Speaker 2: would have the line I am being sent down to 295 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:34,840 Speaker 2: the base struck out twice. 296 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,879 Speaker 1: The tone of Owen's letters changed very quickly once he 297 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:42,800 Speaker 1: got into the trenches and as his unit held advanced 298 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:46,840 Speaker 1: posts ahead of British lines. At one point he wrote 299 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:50,439 Speaker 1: to his mother quote, I have suffered seventh hell. I 300 00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:52,760 Speaker 1: have not been at the front, I have been in 301 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:57,000 Speaker 1: front of it. He wrote about the makeshift facilities, the cold, 302 00:18:57,119 --> 00:18:59,760 Speaker 1: the wet, and the mud which got into his sleeping bag, 303 00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:02,320 Speaker 1: and in the words of a letter from January of 304 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:06,760 Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen, that holy of holies my pajamas. 305 00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:11,320 Speaker 2: On January twelfth of nineteen seventeen, Owen's men were hit 306 00:19:11,359 --> 00:19:14,600 Speaker 2: with a gas attack, which he later memorialized in one 307 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:19,119 Speaker 2: of his best known poems, Dulce et decorum Essed. Even 308 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:23,199 Speaker 2: before the gruesomeness of the gas, this poem describes the 309 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:27,879 Speaker 2: soldiers in the trenches as quote bent double like old 310 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 2: beggars under sacks, knock kneed, coughing like hags. When the 311 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:35,560 Speaker 2: gas hits and somebody can't get his gas mask on 312 00:19:35,640 --> 00:19:40,280 Speaker 2: in time, he's described as drowning as under a green sea. 313 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:44,240 Speaker 2: You will return to this poem later in March of 314 00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:47,639 Speaker 2: nineteen seventeen, Owen was injured during the Battle of the 315 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:51,119 Speaker 2: sum He fell through a shell hole into a cellar 316 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:53,720 Speaker 2: and he got a concussion and he was trapped in 317 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:57,520 Speaker 2: that space for three days. Then in April, while his 318 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,040 Speaker 2: men were trying to hold a railroad line, he i 319 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:02,760 Speaker 2: had a horrific experience in which he was blown off 320 00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:05,960 Speaker 2: an embankment by a shell and he landed among the 321 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,119 Speaker 2: dismembered remains of another officer who had been his friend. 322 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,520 Speaker 2: Owen had to spend days sheltering there under a piece 323 00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:18,639 Speaker 2: of corrugated iron. After this, Owen started showing signs of 324 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,640 Speaker 2: shell shock. This term was likely coined in nineteen fifteen 325 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 2: by Charles Myers of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Some 326 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:31,120 Speaker 2: people today describe shell shock as post traumatic stress disorder, 327 00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:35,320 Speaker 2: and while shell shock and PTSD are both responses to 328 00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:41,400 Speaker 2: trauma only, some of the symptoms overlap. These include nightmares, flashbacks, 329 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:44,679 Speaker 2: and intrusive thoughts. A lot of the other symptoms of 330 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:48,720 Speaker 2: shell shock seemed really physical, like being not able to 331 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:53,000 Speaker 2: stop shaking or being unable to speak or move, or 332 00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:58,720 Speaker 2: see or hear, as well as confusion and delirium. Initially, 333 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:04,000 Speaker 2: many soldiers experiencing shell shock were accused of cowardice or malingering. 334 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:08,720 Speaker 2: Some were court martialed and even executed for cowardice or desertion. 335 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:13,280 Speaker 2: Even as more doctors became convinced that shell shock was 336 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:17,200 Speaker 2: a real condition that required treatment, there were still people 337 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:21,840 Speaker 2: who insisted that shell shock soldiers were just cowards. One 338 00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:24,960 Speaker 2: theory about shell shock's cause was that it was connected 339 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:29,440 Speaker 2: to prolonged exposure to the incessant sounds of German shells. 340 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:32,760 Speaker 2: So by December of nineteen sixteen, the British Army had 341 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:36,520 Speaker 2: set up four specialized treatment centers well away from the 342 00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:41,760 Speaker 2: sounds of battle. By nineteen seventeen, these had been completely overwhelmed, 343 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:44,480 Speaker 2: and by the end of the war about eighty thousand 344 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:48,879 Speaker 2: British soldiers had been diagnosed with shell shock. Owen was 345 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:51,840 Speaker 2: admitted to a series of hospitals starting in May of 346 00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:57,880 Speaker 2: nineteen seventeen, ultimately winding up at Craig Lockhart Hydropathic in Edinburgh, 347 00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:02,320 Speaker 2: which had become Craig Lockhart Warhi Hospital for Neurasthenic Officers. 348 00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:03,879 Speaker 1: Doctor A. J. 349 00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:07,280 Speaker 2: Brock was one of four medical officers there, and he 350 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 2: was treating his patients through what he called occupational therapy 351 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:15,760 Speaker 2: or ergo therapy or work cure. Brock wrote quote, if 352 00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:18,119 Speaker 2: the essential thing for the patient to do is to 353 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:22,560 Speaker 2: help himself, the essential thing for the doctor to do, Indeed, 354 00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:25,960 Speaker 2: the only thing he can profitably do is to help 355 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:30,840 Speaker 2: him to help himself. Patients were expected to engage with 356 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:35,359 Speaker 2: the world around them through activity and useful work. Brock 357 00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:38,159 Speaker 2: arranged for the patients to do things like teach or 358 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:42,360 Speaker 2: work on nearby farms during their convalescence. One of Owen's 359 00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:46,840 Speaker 2: jobs was editing the hospital magazine, The Hydra. The magazine 360 00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:50,600 Speaker 2: itself was also a form of treatment. When patients found 361 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:54,360 Speaker 2: themselves without anything to do, they were encouraged to write something, 362 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:58,840 Speaker 2: including writing about their war experiences. This also had the 363 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:01,840 Speaker 2: effect of allowing Page patients to process what had happened 364 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:05,440 Speaker 2: to them through writing. While many other hospitals treating shell 365 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:08,600 Speaker 2: shock or advising patients not to think about it and 366 00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:12,920 Speaker 2: to focus on pleasant things instead, while Owen was it 367 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:16,520 Speaker 2: Craig Lockhart. Another patient arrived, and that was poet and 368 00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:21,239 Speaker 2: writer Siegfried Sassoon. Sessong did not have shell shock. He 369 00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:24,719 Speaker 2: had been declared mentally unfit to serve after writing a 370 00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:28,679 Speaker 2: statement a pretty strong statement against the war, which was 371 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:33,560 Speaker 2: dated June fifteenth, nineteen seventeen. That statement began quote, I 372 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,879 Speaker 2: am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance 373 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,080 Speaker 2: of military authority, because I believe that the war is 374 00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:44,320 Speaker 2: being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to 375 00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:47,640 Speaker 2: end it. Sessoun wrote that he believed that the war 376 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:51,400 Speaker 2: had started as one of defense and liberation, but had 377 00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:57,040 Speaker 2: become one of aggression and conquest. This statement really caused 378 00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:00,679 Speaker 2: a furor, including being read before for the House of 379 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:04,160 Speaker 2: Commons and printed in the London Times, and of course 380 00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:06,280 Speaker 2: Sassoon being sent to the hospital. 381 00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:10,639 Speaker 1: Owen had written some similar sentiments to his mother in 382 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,959 Speaker 1: a letter that April, in which he expressed bitterness quote 383 00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:17,479 Speaker 1: towards those in England who might relieve us and will not, 384 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:22,520 Speaker 1: and he also admired Sassoon greatly. Sassoon was about seven 385 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,760 Speaker 1: years older than Owen, and he was already a published poet. 386 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:30,199 Speaker 1: During his military service, Sassoon's writing had become grittier and 387 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:33,159 Speaker 1: more realistic, and had pushed back on the idea of 388 00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:38,720 Speaker 1: military service as heroic and romanticized. While at craig Lockhart, 389 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:42,680 Speaker 1: Owen and Sassoon worked on poems together. There are handwritten 390 00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:45,840 Speaker 1: drafts surviving today in which you can see Owen's original 391 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:50,120 Speaker 1: words along with Sassoon's edits and suggestions, which often made 392 00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:52,480 Speaker 1: Owen's language more direct and forceful. 393 00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:57,520 Speaker 2: One of the poems that evolved through Sassoon's feedback is 394 00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:00,840 Speaker 2: another of Owen's most well known, and that's Anthem for 395 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:05,760 Speaker 2: Doomed Youth, which was published posthumously in nineteen twenty. What 396 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:09,399 Speaker 2: passing bells for those who die as cattle? Only the 397 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:14,080 Speaker 2: monstrous anger of the guns, Only the stuttering rifles, rapid 398 00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:19,080 Speaker 2: rattle can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now 399 00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:23,440 Speaker 2: for them, No prayers, nor bells, nor any voice of mourning, 400 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:28,320 Speaker 2: save the choirs, the shrill, demented choirs, of wailing shells 401 00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:33,200 Speaker 2: and bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles 402 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,800 Speaker 2: may be held to speed them all? Not in the 403 00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:38,560 Speaker 2: hands of boys, but in their eyes shall shine the 404 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:43,080 Speaker 2: holy glimmers of goodbyes, the pallor of girls, brows shall 405 00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:46,920 Speaker 2: be their pall, their flowers, the tenderness of patient minds, 406 00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 2: and each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds. Tracy 407 00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:54,840 Speaker 2: mentioned at the top of the show that Owen's work 408 00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:58,000 Speaker 2: also was part of a shift in how British poets 409 00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:01,800 Speaker 2: were writing about war. You can compare Anthem for Doomed 410 00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:04,800 Speaker 2: Youth to Rupert Brooks The Soldier, which is a lot 411 00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:08,919 Speaker 2: more patriotic and romanticized. Brooke had joined the Navy at 412 00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:11,440 Speaker 2: the start of the war, and he died of sepsis 413 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,720 Speaker 2: on April twenty third, nineteen fifteen, while on the way 414 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:18,520 Speaker 2: to the Dardanell Street in preparation for the Gallipoli Campaign. 415 00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:23,280 Speaker 2: The Soldier was published posthumously, and it reads, if I 416 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,960 Speaker 2: should die, think only this of me, that there's some 417 00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:30,200 Speaker 2: corner of a foreign field that is forever England, there 418 00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 2: shall be in that rich earth of richer dust concealed, 419 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,320 Speaker 2: a dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, gave once 420 00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:42,119 Speaker 2: her flowers, to love her ways to Rome, a body 421 00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:45,960 Speaker 2: of England's breathing English air, washed by the rivers, blessed 422 00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:49,919 Speaker 2: by sons of home. And think this heart all evils 423 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,960 Speaker 2: shed away a pulse in the eternal mind no less 424 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:57,160 Speaker 2: gives somewhere back the thoughts by England, given her sights 425 00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,280 Speaker 2: and sounds, dreams, happy as her day, and laughter learned 426 00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:05,000 Speaker 2: of friends and gentleness in Hearts at Peace under in 427 00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:10,439 Speaker 2: English Heaven. It is also very pro England in a 428 00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:15,760 Speaker 2: way that Wilfrid Owen's poems really were not. Wilfrid Owen 429 00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,440 Speaker 2: did recover during his time at Craig Lockhart, and we'll 430 00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:21,760 Speaker 2: talk about his return to the front after another sponsor break. 431 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:35,240 Speaker 2: By October of nineteen seventeen, Wilfrid Owen had recovered enough 432 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:39,200 Speaker 2: to be approved to return to light duty. He remained 433 00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:41,840 Speaker 2: in England, and while he was on leave in London, 434 00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:46,119 Speaker 2: he met journalist and art gallery owner Robert Baldwin Ross, 435 00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:50,479 Speaker 2: known as Robbie Ross, was as openly gay as it 436 00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:54,280 Speaker 2: was possible to be in Britain in the early twentieth century, 437 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:58,320 Speaker 2: at which point homosexuality was both a crime and very 438 00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:02,639 Speaker 2: heavily stigmatized. According to some reports, Ross was the first 439 00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:06,119 Speaker 2: man Oscar Wilde ever had a sexual experience with, and 440 00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:09,960 Speaker 2: wild was, of course, sinced two years of hard labor 441 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:14,520 Speaker 2: for gross indecency for homosexual conduct in eighteen ninety five. 442 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:20,000 Speaker 2: Ross became one of Owen's mentors and later his literary executor, 443 00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:23,640 Speaker 2: and also introduced him to other poets and writers, including 444 00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:24,840 Speaker 2: Arnold Bennett and H. G. 445 00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:28,879 Speaker 1: Wells. During his time at Craig Lockhart and the months 446 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,560 Speaker 1: that followed, Owen felt that he had been reborn as 447 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:36,119 Speaker 1: a poet. On New Year's Eve of nineteen seventeen, he 448 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:38,880 Speaker 1: wrote a letter to his mother that said, in part quote, 449 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,680 Speaker 1: I am started. The tugs have left me. I feel 450 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,840 Speaker 1: the great swelling of the open sea taking my galleon. 451 00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,959 Speaker 2: In early nineteen eighteen, Owen drafted a poem called Shadwell's Stare. 452 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:54,160 Speaker 2: This is a real set of stairs on the bank 453 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:56,720 Speaker 2: of the River Thames which lead down into the water. 454 00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,520 Speaker 2: This isn't a part of London's East End that Owen 455 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,840 Speaker 2: is known to have visited, and it also had a 456 00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,920 Speaker 2: reputation as a cruising area for men who were seeking 457 00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:09,320 Speaker 2: out other men, which is one interpretation for the poem, 458 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:13,040 Speaker 2: which goes this way, I am the ghost of shadwell Stair, 459 00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:17,840 Speaker 2: along the wharves, by the waterhouse, and through the cavernous slaughterhouse. 460 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:21,400 Speaker 2: I am the shadow that walks there. Yet I have 461 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:25,480 Speaker 2: flesh both firm and cool, and eyes tumultuous as the 462 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:28,920 Speaker 2: gems of moons and lamps in the full times, when 463 00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:34,000 Speaker 2: dusk sails wavering down the pool shuddering. The purple street 464 00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:38,600 Speaker 2: arc burns, where I watch always from the banks, dolorously 465 00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,520 Speaker 2: the shipping clanks, and after me a strange tide turns. 466 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:47,040 Speaker 2: I walk till the stars of London wayne and dawn 467 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:51,600 Speaker 2: creeps up the Shadwell stair. But when the crowing sirens blare, 468 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 2: I with another ghost am Lane. In July of nineteen eighteen, 469 00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:01,200 Speaker 2: Wilfred Owen was declared fit for general service. Of course, 470 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:03,120 Speaker 2: a lot of people in his life did not want 471 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,120 Speaker 2: him to go back into combat. Some actually tried to 472 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:10,920 Speaker 2: find alternative assignments for him in England. Siegfried Sassoon, who 473 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:13,560 Speaker 2: had already returned to combat and then been sent back 474 00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:16,920 Speaker 2: to England to recover from a head injury, even threatened 475 00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,320 Speaker 2: to stab Owen in the leg to keep him from 476 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:20,920 Speaker 2: going back to the front. 477 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:25,560 Speaker 1: After Owen's experience with shell shock, his family especially worried 478 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:28,800 Speaker 1: about his mental state, but he dismissed this in a 479 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,720 Speaker 1: letter to his mother, which also spelled out his reasons 480 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:34,800 Speaker 1: for wanting to go back to the front quote, my 481 00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:37,760 Speaker 1: nerves are in perfect order. I came out again in 482 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:41,040 Speaker 1: order to help these boys directly by leading them as 483 00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:45,400 Speaker 1: well as an officer can indirectly by watching their sufferings, 484 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,480 Speaker 1: that I may speak of them as well as a 485 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:51,400 Speaker 1: pleader can. Owen was back at the front with his 486 00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:56,040 Speaker 1: old battalion. By September of nineteen eighteen. He had already 487 00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:59,880 Speaker 1: described himself as reborn as a poet, and he also 488 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:04,440 Speaker 1: appeared changed as a soldier. He seemed to have numbed 489 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:07,800 Speaker 1: himself to the horrors of war, which is another thing 490 00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:11,760 Speaker 1: he wrote about in his poetry. He had become intensely 491 00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:16,440 Speaker 1: efficient and adept at command. He was later awarded the 492 00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:20,040 Speaker 1: Military Cross for actions that took place on October first 493 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:25,600 Speaker 1: and second, nineteen eighteen. His citation for conspicuous gallantry and 494 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:29,600 Speaker 1: devotion to duty red quote on the company commander becoming 495 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:34,640 Speaker 1: a casualty. He assumed command and showed fine leadership and 496 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:39,720 Speaker 1: resisted a heavy counter attack. He personally manipulated a captured 497 00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:44,800 Speaker 1: enemy MG from an isolated position and inflicted considerable losses 498 00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:51,080 Speaker 1: on the enemy. Throughout he behaved most gallantly. On November fourth, 499 00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:55,280 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, Owen's company was trying to place a temporary 500 00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:59,320 Speaker 1: bridge across the Saber Canal on the Western Front when 501 00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:03,440 Speaker 1: they came under heavy fire from German machine gunners. Owen 502 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:07,480 Speaker 1: was killed at the age of twenty five. One week later, 503 00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,959 Speaker 1: almost to the hour, Germany and the Allies signed an 504 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:15,560 Speaker 1: armistice that stopped the fighting. Owen's mother received word of 505 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:19,120 Speaker 1: his death on Armistice Day as church bells were ringing 506 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:20,480 Speaker 1: to mark the end of the war. 507 00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:24,840 Speaker 2: The sargoned back to Owen's best known poem, dulceaet de 508 00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:29,000 Speaker 2: koram est, which he probably drafted at Craig Lockhart. It 509 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:32,960 Speaker 2: ends quote, if you could hear at every jolt the 510 00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:37,960 Speaker 2: blood come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, 511 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:42,840 Speaker 2: bitter as the cut of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues. 512 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:47,440 Speaker 2: My friend, you would not tell with such high zest 513 00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:52,080 Speaker 2: to children ardent for some desperate glory. The old lie 514 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:57,200 Speaker 2: dulce et decoram s propatria moriy. That line in Latin, 515 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:00,280 Speaker 2: which Owen was framing as a lie, means it is 516 00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:02,760 Speaker 2: sweet and proper to die for one's country. 517 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:08,080 Speaker 1: Owen was buried at Or's Cemetery in France. His mother 518 00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:12,680 Speaker 1: had lines from his poem the end inscribed in his tombstone. 519 00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:16,320 Speaker 1: Shall life renew these bodies of a truce all death, 520 00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:20,440 Speaker 1: will he annul all tears of suage? In that poem, 521 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,280 Speaker 1: the last line ends with a question mark, but that's 522 00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:26,480 Speaker 1: not part of the tombstone inscription, making it read like 523 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:30,600 Speaker 1: an answer rather than another question, or like a reassurance 524 00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:32,320 Speaker 1: rather than doubt. 525 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:37,080 Speaker 2: Only five of Owen's poems were published during his lifetime, 526 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:41,600 Speaker 2: three in the Nation and two anonymously in The Hydra 527 00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:44,920 Speaker 2: at Craig Lockhart, but he had started pulling things together 528 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:47,960 Speaker 2: to publish a collection of his work before his return 529 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:51,880 Speaker 2: to the front. After Owen's death, Sigfried Sassoon worked with 530 00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:55,760 Speaker 2: Edith Sitwell to publish this collection of twenty three poems 531 00:33:55,880 --> 00:34:00,360 Speaker 2: that came out in nineteen twenty. Edith's brother, ausbert's Well 532 00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:03,400 Speaker 2: was friends with Owen and with sassin and she had 533 00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:07,360 Speaker 2: also published some of Owen's poems in her annual anthology 534 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:12,040 Speaker 2: called Weels in nineteen nineteen. A preface which Owen had 535 00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:15,480 Speaker 2: drafted partially in verse began quote, this book is not 536 00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:19,080 Speaker 2: about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak 537 00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:22,520 Speaker 2: of them. Nor is it about deeds or lands, nor 538 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:28,319 Speaker 2: anything about glory, honor, dominion, or power except war. Above all, 539 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:32,400 Speaker 2: this book is not concerned with poetry. The subject of 540 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:36,239 Speaker 2: it is war and the pity of war. The poetry 541 00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:40,440 Speaker 2: is in the pity. Another part of that preface read quote, 542 00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:43,960 Speaker 2: all the poet can do today is to warn. That 543 00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:48,000 Speaker 2: is why the true poets must be truthful. In his 544 00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:52,720 Speaker 2: introduction to this collection, se Soon described Owen this way quote. 545 00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:56,680 Speaker 2: He was a man of absolute integrity of mind. He 546 00:34:56,800 --> 00:35:00,239 Speaker 2: never wrote his poems, as many war poets did, make 547 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:04,000 Speaker 2: the effect of a personal gesture. He pitied others. He 548 00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:07,360 Speaker 2: did not pity himself. In the last year of his life, 549 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,320 Speaker 2: he attained a clear vision of what he needed to say, 550 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:15,080 Speaker 2: and these poems survive him as his true and splendid testament. 551 00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:19,480 Speaker 2: Since Owen's first collection came out after the war was over, 552 00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:23,640 Speaker 2: its immediate crisis had passed, so this book came out 553 00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:26,400 Speaker 2: as people were grieving and reckoning with the deaths of 554 00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:30,080 Speaker 2: more than eight hundred eighty thousand British military personnel and 555 00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:34,960 Speaker 2: more than sixteen thousand British civilians. Owen's poems spoke to 556 00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:38,160 Speaker 2: this loss and grief and to the humanity of the 557 00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:40,800 Speaker 2: soldiers in the trenches, so it really struck a chord 558 00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:45,000 Speaker 2: with the reading public. Critics were not always as impressed 559 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:49,000 Speaker 2: with it, though for example, William Butler Yeates largely dismissed it, 560 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:52,120 Speaker 2: saying quote passive suffering is not a theme for poetry 561 00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:55,240 Speaker 2: that sounds about right for Yates, and when he edited 562 00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:58,120 Speaker 2: the Oxford Book of Modern Verse in nineteen thirty six, 563 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:02,560 Speaker 2: he did not include any of Owen's work. Another collection 564 00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:06,360 Speaker 2: of Owen's work was published in nineteen thirty one, edited 565 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:11,520 Speaker 2: by Edmund Blunden and containing nineteen additional poems. Benjamin Britton 566 00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:15,200 Speaker 2: also set several of Owens's war poems to music in 567 00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:20,200 Speaker 2: his War Requiem, which also incorporated Latin liturgical texts, and 568 00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:24,799 Speaker 2: this was first performed in nineteen sixty two. The Collected 569 00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:28,120 Speaker 2: Poems of Wilfred Owen, edited by C. Day Lewis, was 570 00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:32,280 Speaker 2: published in nineteen sixty three and contained about eighty poems 571 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:36,680 Speaker 2: and fragments. War Requiem and this new edition of Owen's 572 00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:40,320 Speaker 2: poems both came out as the anti Vietnam War movement 573 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:43,640 Speaker 2: was evolving in the nineteen sixties, and Owen's work really 574 00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:47,759 Speaker 2: resonated with that movement, which became part of his legacy 575 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:52,399 Speaker 2: as a war poet. That legacy was closely guarded by 576 00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:56,160 Speaker 2: Owen's family, especially his mother who died in nineteen forty two, 577 00:36:56,640 --> 00:37:00,399 Speaker 2: and his brother Harold, who died in nineteen seventy one. 578 00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:05,279 Speaker 2: When Harold reprinted Wilfrid's military cross citation, he changed the 579 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:09,800 Speaker 2: part about inflicting considerable losses to the enemy, instead saying 580 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:13,520 Speaker 2: he had captured them. It was as though Harold did 581 00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:16,680 Speaker 2: not want to publicize that his brother had killed other 582 00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:21,400 Speaker 2: people in battle. Harold pushed back against allegations that Wilfred 583 00:37:21,400 --> 00:37:24,799 Speaker 2: had been accused of cowardice by a commanding officer. That's 584 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:27,760 Speaker 2: something that is not reflected at all in his military file. 585 00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:31,600 Speaker 2: It's a little unclear where this idea first came from, 586 00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:34,400 Speaker 2: but it was included in the first edition of poet 587 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:38,680 Speaker 2: Robert graves memoir Goodbye to All. That something that Harold 588 00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:42,719 Speaker 2: tried to get him to change. Harold also made a 589 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:47,200 Speaker 2: concerted effort to dismiss the idea that Wilfred had relationships 590 00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:50,960 Speaker 2: with other men. That was also something that Robert Graves 591 00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:55,239 Speaker 2: included in later editions of his memoir, which described Wilfred 592 00:37:55,280 --> 00:38:01,440 Speaker 2: as quote an idealistic homosexual. During will Ford's lifetime, people 593 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:05,600 Speaker 2: just noticed that his social and literary circle included a 594 00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,799 Speaker 2: lot of men who were either believed or known to 595 00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:12,919 Speaker 2: be involved with other men, and Wilfrid was also never 596 00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:15,720 Speaker 2: known to have had a romantic relationship with a woman. 597 00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:20,360 Speaker 2: There are also lots of references to boys and lads 598 00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:23,960 Speaker 2: throughout his work, and beyond works like Shadwell Stare that 599 00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:26,719 Speaker 2: we read earlier, a number of these poems can be 600 00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,439 Speaker 2: read as having homoerotic undertones. This may have been part 601 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:34,319 Speaker 2: of why Harold blacked out part of Wilfrid's letters with 602 00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:38,120 Speaker 2: India Inc. Before they could be published, and he actually 603 00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:42,000 Speaker 2: cut out some portions with scissors, noting these passages as 604 00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:46,719 Speaker 2: illegible in the printed text. Their mother also destroyed some 605 00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:50,920 Speaker 2: of Wilfrid's correspondents completely, including some of his letters from 606 00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:56,239 Speaker 2: Siegfried Sassoon, some of which were reportedly very passionate. So 607 00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:58,840 Speaker 2: Soon married a woman in nineteen thirty one and is 608 00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:01,919 Speaker 2: known to have also a number of relationships with men. 609 00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:06,360 Speaker 2: We know that a lot of people, regardless of their gender, 610 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:10,600 Speaker 2: found Owen attractive, and a number of his letters described 611 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:13,360 Speaker 2: basically being flirted with, but we just don't know with 612 00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:16,440 Speaker 2: certainty whether he had a romantic or physical relationship with 613 00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:21,280 Speaker 2: anybody during his lifetime and his biography of Wilfred, Harold 614 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:26,160 Speaker 2: Owen described his brother as having quote escheed any complications 615 00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:30,960 Speaker 2: involving sex of any sort because such complications would quote 616 00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:36,719 Speaker 2: risk the lessening of his intellectual powers. We can't really 617 00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:39,560 Speaker 2: take that statement as face value, though, because it's very 618 00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:43,600 Speaker 2: clear that Harold Owen was taking steps to put forth 619 00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:47,839 Speaker 2: a particular image of his brother. The Ransom Center at 620 00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:52,040 Speaker 2: the University of Texas at Austin acquired some of Owen's letters, 621 00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:56,040 Speaker 2: and a twenty fourteen blog post by them describes efforts 622 00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:58,640 Speaker 2: to use software to try to read through those marked 623 00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:02,080 Speaker 2: out passages. If anything has come of that effort, it 624 00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:05,600 Speaker 2: does not seem to have been published. That is Wilfred Owen, 625 00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:07,360 Speaker 2: who I just I want to hug. 626 00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:13,000 Speaker 1: I know my instinct is, oh, that poor sweet kid. Yeah. 627 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:15,319 Speaker 1: It also, I'll talk about it in behind the scenes. 628 00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:16,319 Speaker 1: I won't get that it now. 629 00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:23,960 Speaker 2: Yeah. I have listener mail from Sarah Sarah. I wrote 630 00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:27,520 Speaker 2: to say, hey, ladies, longtime fan, here, first time emailing. 631 00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:31,279 Speaker 2: Nice to finally meet you. I've been listening since close 632 00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:35,840 Speaker 2: to the beginning, and I think I have the sym IHDPHD. 633 00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:39,520 Speaker 2: First Off, thank you for your recent commentary about protecting research, 634 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:42,600 Speaker 2: the sciences, are civil servants, etc. The list goes on 635 00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:45,279 Speaker 2: and on. I know people have already written about this, 636 00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:47,399 Speaker 2: but to reiterate it means a lot to speak out 637 00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:51,040 Speaker 2: so we're not alone as our country changes. Last week, 638 00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:54,400 Speaker 2: I was thrilled with your very comprehensive National Park episodes. 639 00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:56,920 Speaker 2: Much like everyone says when the email, I never had 640 00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:58,640 Speaker 2: a reason to write in, but I kid you not. 641 00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:02,240 Speaker 2: My husband's family is hosting a once every five years 642 00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:06,040 Speaker 2: reunion in Shenandoah this weekend. I guess that's not saying 643 00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:08,640 Speaker 2: much as it's the most popular VIBE visitors, but I 644 00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:12,640 Speaker 2: was delighted. My personal commentary to add to this note 645 00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:15,960 Speaker 2: is that being Marylanders, we've spent a lot of time 646 00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:19,319 Speaker 2: in Shenandoah, so I wanted to speak specifically to the 647 00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:24,240 Speaker 2: efforts of PATC, Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and park rangers 648 00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:28,800 Speaker 2: who maintain the park and its historic properties for reasonable prices. 649 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:31,319 Speaker 2: Anyone can book an overnight stay at one of the 650 00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,680 Speaker 2: homesteader's original houses, which my husband and I have done 651 00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:38,440 Speaker 2: many times. There are other options too, that were built 652 00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:42,200 Speaker 2: by the PATC for the purposes of working within the park, 653 00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:45,880 Speaker 2: but for obvious reasons, the historical ones are my personal favorites. 654 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:49,680 Speaker 2: It's a special way to thoroughly immerse yourself in the area. 655 00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:52,040 Speaker 2: I should say too, it's not lost on me that 656 00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:55,160 Speaker 2: these were people's homes, and I consider them rather sacred. 657 00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:58,640 Speaker 2: Each home has binders of their family histories you can 658 00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:01,560 Speaker 2: read while you're there, and I enjoy trying to find 659 00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:06,600 Speaker 2: related historic structures nearby. You can still see some gravestones 660 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:09,960 Speaker 2: and ruins of former houses, churches, etc. That have been 661 00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:13,960 Speaker 2: almost lost. I'll specifically call out the Corbin and the 662 00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:17,360 Speaker 2: Jones families, whose last living property owners were allowed to 663 00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:21,040 Speaker 2: live at each home until they passed. Anyway, I wanted 664 00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:24,240 Speaker 2: to share a tidbit to humanize it even further. Honor 665 00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:26,680 Speaker 2: the families who lost property, and thank the folks who 666 00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:29,640 Speaker 2: keep the history alive. You too, included In spite of 667 00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:32,640 Speaker 2: the area's complex past, it's a place to enjoy nature 668 00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:35,880 Speaker 2: and remember. Thank you for reading this very long email. 669 00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:37,200 Speaker 1: Pet Tax is attached. 670 00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:40,719 Speaker 2: This is our daughter Poppy, a poodle in honor of 671 00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:44,120 Speaker 2: Holly Hope. You're both off to some fun summer activities 672 00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:46,719 Speaker 2: in your various locales and thanks again for everything. You 673 00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:49,280 Speaker 2: do to help us learn and grow all my best, Sarah, 674 00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:53,960 Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Sarah. There are a lot of 675 00:42:54,440 --> 00:43:00,319 Speaker 2: local and regional hiking clubs and mountain clubs that do 676 00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:05,279 Speaker 2: so much work to build and maintain trails, usually on 677 00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:10,799 Speaker 2: a volunteer basis, work that I'd like was not even 678 00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:16,240 Speaker 2: fully aware happened by anyone other than park rangers until 679 00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:19,440 Speaker 2: relatively recently in my life. If that is something that 680 00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:21,480 Speaker 2: you were interested in, if you like hiking and you 681 00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:23,680 Speaker 2: like the outdoors, and you maybe have never really thought 682 00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:26,600 Speaker 2: about that, you can check out in your area and 683 00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:30,000 Speaker 2: see if there are organizations that are doing things like 684 00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:32,520 Speaker 2: trail magnance and trail cleanup. Some of it is stuff 685 00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:36,000 Speaker 2: like picking up trash, but some of us also making 686 00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:39,480 Speaker 2: sure the trails are well maintained and stay graded the 687 00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:42,439 Speaker 2: way that they need to be to let water run 688 00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:45,560 Speaker 2: off and not pool and flood and things like that. 689 00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:50,719 Speaker 2: So also, what an adorable What an adorable dog? 690 00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:52,160 Speaker 1: Poppy? 691 00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:58,399 Speaker 2: Yes, Poppy is kind of a light chocolate or kind 692 00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:02,040 Speaker 2: of cafe ole kind of for a dog and has 693 00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:05,160 Speaker 2: one paw on a red ball which is super super cute. 694 00:44:05,800 --> 00:44:07,800 Speaker 2: If you would like to send us a note about 695 00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:10,680 Speaker 2: this or any other podcast. We're at History Podcasts at 696 00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:14,800 Speaker 2: iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe to our show 697 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:17,719 Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you like to 698 00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:26,000 Speaker 2: listen to podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is 699 00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:30,399 Speaker 2: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit 700 00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:33,880 Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 701 00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:34,800 Speaker 2: your favorite shows.