From English Idyll to Living Hell by Rachel Cochrane
A poem set to music, inspired by the death of English pastoral composer George Butterworth, an Officer of the 13th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, who died in the battle of the Somme 5th August 1916. This recording formed part of an exhibit for ‘The Somme: Remembrance and Expression’ exhibition at Pod Gallery, Bishop Auckland.
Podcast content
Words by Rachel Cochrane, read by Tom Raine with music by Rosie Cochrane
You took up your pencil
To hang your notes
Upon the wires
As crows perch to prophesy
A death knell
From English Idyll to living hell
You left unfinished songs
An ember in the grate
Took up club and bayonet
Alongside rough hewn mining men
They dug you a trench
Named it in your honour
You wrote to their wives and mothers
The Durham Lads in their hundreds
That will never grow old
Head above the parapet
And as you fall
In Munster Alley
A final refrain
Your fingers twitch
Upon the mud
To play it out
In silence

Officers 13th Btn DLI March 1915 (George Butterworth circled) Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the former DLI and Durham County Record Office DRO D/DLI 7/75/26