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watercolor painting of WWI soldiers running into battle

Siegfried Sassoon’s “Before the Battle”

A Visual Interpretation

By Julian Peters

August 22, 2018

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Siegfried Sassoon, a British army captain during World War I, wrote his celebrated poem “Before the Battle” while on the front lines on June 25, 1916 – just days before the Battle of Somme. This visual interpretation of Sassoon’s words commemorates this year’s centenary of the end of the Great War.

Siegfried Sassoon’s “Before the Battle” - A Visual Interpretation by Julian Peters

Music of Whispering Trees

Hushed by a Broad-Winged Breeze Where shaken water gleams;

and evening radiance falling with reedy bird-notes calling

O bear me safe through dark, you low-voiced streams.

I have no need to pray

that fear may pass away

I scorn the growl and rumble of the fight that summons me from cool

silence of march and pool and yellow lilies islanded in light

O river of stars and shadows, Lead me through the night.

Julian Peters self portrait

Julian Peters is an illustrator and comic book artist living in Montreal, Canada, who focuses on adapting classical poems into graphic art. His work has been exhibited internationally and published in several poetry and graphic art collections.

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