First World War poems shown on London underground

LONDON, Oct. 22 （People's Daily Online）-- Over 3,000 poems were presented from October 2014 on Tube trains, London Overground trains, and at special station sites for the first time. Londoners and visitors to London will have the opportunity whilst travelling to read the works of six British, Italian, Austrian and French poets: Edward Thomas, Ivor Gurney, Siegfried Sassoon, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Georg Trakl and Guillaume Apollinaire.

Travellers can also acquire one of the 90,000 copies of the free booklet, War Poems on the Underground, 1914-1918. The poems within it have all been featured on the Tube. They address the different feelings, including anger at the political and military establishment, which arose as a result of the First World War. The First World War had a profound impact on London and its transport system. Nearly half of the Underground's staff were recruited to serve and by the end of the war, more than one thousand employees had been killed. Memorials to them are at several stations across our network.

Judith Chernaik, writer, editor and founder of Poems on the Underground, said: “We hope readers will be moved by these poets writing at first hand about their experience of the war, and in different ways expressing comradeship, love of country, despair and even hope.”

Poems on the Underground, founded in 1986, aims to bring poetry to a mass audience.It helps to make journeys more stimulating and even inspiring by showcasing a diverse range of poetry, including classical, contemporary and international poets in Tube train carriages across London.