“I timidi fiori del cuore e della mente”: Verses of a V.A.D.
Abstract
Vera Brittain’s Verses of a V.A.D. belongs to the war poetry genre, a predominantly male domain, and presents the reader with the thoughts of a volunteer nurse during the First World War. Not only have the emotions evoked by the verbal images of the poems in this collection marked the life of the British writer, but they also represent the feelings of many women who found themselves in similar situations and could not or did not know how to give voice to their sorrow. Through the selection of some poems, also translated in Italian, the present paper aims to explore a woman’s experience during the Great War. The dialectic life/death is reflected in the verses of the author who uses the art of poetry as a tool for mourning when deprived of her loved ones. Through poems characterized by an essential style, a simple vocabulary and brief verses, Vera Brittain puts on paper her sorrow in “shy flowers of the heart and the mind”; poems that bear witness to the passing away of many lives and to the hope to survive in a present burdened with so many losses.
Bibliografia
Acton, Carol. 2014. Brittain, Vera. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, 1914- 1918 Online http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/brittain_vera (ultimo accesso 14-10-2015).
Badenhausen, Richard. Winter 2003. Mourning through Memoir: Trauma, Testimony and Community in Vera Brittain’s ‘Testament of Youth’. Twentieth Century Literature, 49, 4: 421-448.
Bostridge, Mark & Alan Bishop eds. 1998. Letters from a Lost Generation. First World War Letters of Vera Brittain and Four Friends. London: Virago.
Bostridge, Mark & Paul Berry 2002 [2nd ed.] Vera Brittain. A Life. Boston: Northeastern. Bostridge, Mark. 2014. Vera Brittain and the First World War. The Story of Testament of Youth. London: Bloomsbury.
Bowser, Thekla. 2003. The Story of British V.A.D. Work in the Great War. London: Imperial War Museum, Dept. of Printed Books.
Brecht, Bertold. 1939. “Der Krieg, der kommen wird”. Traduzione di Franco Fortini. Poesie di Svendborg. Torino: Einaudi.
Brittain, Vera. 2015. Generazione Perduta. Traduzione di Marianna D’Ezio. Firenze: Giunti Editore.
Brittain, Vera. 1918. Verses of V.A.D. London: Erskine MacDonald Ltd.
Brittain, Vera. 2010. Because You Died. Poetry and Prose of the First World War and After. Mark Bostridge ed. London: Hacette Digial.
Dougary, Ginny. 16 January 2015. “Testament of Youth: Vera Brittain’s daughter Shirley Williams opens up on life and her mother”. Radiotimes http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-01-16/testament-of-youth-vera-brittains-daughter- shirley-williams-opens-up-on-life-and-her-mother-2 (ultimo accesso 15-10-2015).
Dowling, Timothy D. ed. 2006. Personal Perspectives. World War I. Santa Barbara (CA): ABC- CLIO Ins.
Miller, Alisa. The Vera Brittain Collection. The First World War Poetry Digital Archive. http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/brittain (ultimo accesso 15-10-2015).
Noakes, Lucy. Women’s Military Service in the First World War. Women, War & Society, 1914-1918. Gale, Cengage Learning Digital Collection http://gdc.gale.com/assets/files/wws/GML40407_WomensMilitary.pdf (ultimo accesso 15- 10-2015).
Ungaretti, Giuseppe. 2009. Giuseppe Ungaretti. Vita d’un uomo. Tutte le poesie. A cura di Carlo Ossola. Milano: Mondadori.
Reilly, Catherine W. 1982. Scars Upon My Heart: Women’s Poetry and Verse of the First World War. London: Virago.
Watson, Janet S.K. 2004. Fighting Different Ways: Experience, Memory, and the First World War in Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shakespeare, William. 2000. A cura di Nemi D’Agostino. Macbeth. Milano: Garzanti. Acton, Carol. 2014. Brittain, Vera. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, 1914- 1918, http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/brittain_vera (ultimo accesso 14-10-2015).
Badenhausen, Richard. Winter 2003. Mourning through Memoir: Trauma, Testimony and Community in Vera Brittain’s ‘Testament of Youth’. Twentieth Century Literature, 49, 4: 421-448.
Bostridge, Mark & Alan Bishop eds. 1998. Letters from a Lost Generation. First World War Letters of Vera Brittain and Four Friends. London: Virago.
Bostridge, Mark & Paul Berry 2002 [2nd ed.] Vera Brittain. A Life. Boston: Northeastern. Bostridge, Mark. 2014. Vera Brittain and the First World War. The Story of Testament of Youth. London: Bloomsbury.
Bowser, Thekla. 2003. The Story of British V.A.D. Work in the Great War. London: Imperial War Museum, Dept. of Printed Books.
Brecht, Bertold. 1939. “Der Krieg, der kommen wird”. Traduzione di Franco Fortini. Poesie di Svendborg. Torino: Einaudi.
Brittain, Vera. 2015. Generazione Perduta. Traduzione di Marianna D’Ezio. Firenze: Giunti. Brittain, Vera. 1918. Verses of V.A.D. London: Erskine MacDonald.
Brittain, Vera. 2010. Because You Died. Poetry and Prose of the First World War and After. Mark Bostridge ed. London: Hacette Digial.
Dougary, Ginny. 16 January 2015. Testament of Youth: Vera Brittain’s daughter Shirley Williams opens up on life and her mother. Radiotimes http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-01-16/testament-of-youth-vera-brittains-daughter- shirley-williams-opens-up-on-life-and-her-mother-2 (ultimo accesso 15-10-2015).
Dowling, Timothy D. ed. 2006. Personal Perspectives. World War I. Santa Barbara (CA): ABC- CLIO Ins.
Miller, Alisa. The Vera Brittain Collection. The First World War Poetry Digital Archive. http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/brittain (ultimo accesso 15-10-2015).
Noakes, Lucy. Women’s Military Service in the First World War. Women, War & Society, 1914-1918. Gale, Cengage Learning Digital Collection http://gdc.gale.com/assets/files/wws/GML40407_WomensMiliary.pdf (ultimo accesso 15- 10-2015).
Ungaretti, Giuseppe. 2009. Giuseppe Ungaretti. Vita d’un uomo. Tutte le poesie. A cura di Carlo Ossola. Milano: Mondadori.
Reilly, Catherine W. 1982. Scars Upon My Heart: Women’s Poetry and Verse of the First World War. London: Virago.
Watson, Janet S.K. 2004. Fighting Different Ways: Experience, Memory, and the First World War in Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shakespeare, William. 2000. A cura di Nemi D’Agostino. Macbeth. Milano: Garzanti.