Julian Grenfell

Julian Henry Francis Grenfell DSO (30 March 1888 – 26 May 1915) was an English soldier and a war poet of the First World War

Quotes

• The thundering line of battle stands,
    And in the air Death moans and sings;
  But Day shall clasp him with strong hands,
    And Night shall fold him in soft wings.
  • "Into Battle", st. 11, in The Times (1915)

• I adore war. ... It is like a big picnic but without the objectivelessness of a picnic. I have never been more well or more happy. ... It just suits my stolid health and stolid nerves and barbaric disposition. The fighting-excitement vitalizes everything, every sight and action. One loves one's fellow man so much more when one is bent on killing him.
  • In a letter from October 1914, reported in Neil Hollander, Elusive Dove (2013), p. 191 and Max Hastings, Catastrophe 1914 (2013), pp. 527–8