"The Stretcher Bearer" Poem

I read, The Stretcher Bearer, which is a poem written by Thomas Albert Crawford who was a Pte. (Private) in the 15th DLI (Durham Light Infantry) which was apart of the British Army, he was injured on Jult 1, 1916 and he died in 1980. I found the poem interesting because how good the poem is as just a poem, and then adding on the emotion behind it. While I understood that it was very common for soldiers to write poems I wasn't expecting a poem as such quality. The poem really expresses the futility of trying to escape the horrors and pains of war, as well as touching on the humanity of the war expressing just how devestating it was. It displays the exact opposite of how people saw war at the start of it, where they were celebrating that they were going to war, but rather at the time the poem is written just how badly it effected people. It describes how there was rarely a moment where there wasn't any fighting and/or gun shots. I found it very revealing to just how the soldiers felt emotionally and physically at that point in the war which I wasn't prepared for.

Links to images:

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/9350/stretcherbearerspasschefs2.jpg

http://www.cwgc.org/somme/imagelibrary/photo_lib/9820.jpg

http://www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/bullecourt/images/awm-e00440.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ar7HyLDuPx0/Twv

-xno5VgI/AAAAAAAAAh4/XyThbNbr3yU/s400/E05270+Stretcher+bearers+at+Ypres.jpg

http://www.ponybox.com/upload/news/1570_image3.jpg

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/120/785pxcheshireregimenttrcx2.jpg

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8499/448pxaustralianinfantrynx6.jpg

http://www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/bullecourt/images/awm-e02021.jpg

http://www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/bullecourt/images/awm-e00454.jpg

Other Sources

The GREAT WHITE FLEET
Sydney, Australia
The Fleet passes through the Suez Canal
Honolulu, Hawaii
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Bellingham, Washington

The Great White Fleet Research Progress So Far

In my research I found these two sources, 100 years later, the Navy salutes 'Great White Fleet',and Fleet was our Great White hope. These sources provided me with a clean picture of what the people thought of this endeavor that was the Great White Fleet, as well as what the government administration meant for it to do and effect. The first of the two sources also provides several quotations that allows for a more in depth understanding of what all different kinds of people thought/saw/viewed it as and did. It allows for the inference and the interpretation of the information provided to paint a picture of what was happening.