Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Burden

Burden

Smith, Douglas Burnet

Paperback

Series: Oskana Poetry & Poetics, Book 6

General Poetry

Publisher Price: $19.95

ISBN10: 0889777721
ISBN13: 9780889777729
Publisher: Univ Of Regina Pr
Published: Oct 24 2020
Pages: 72
Weight: 0.25
Height: 0.20 Width: 5.51 Depth: 8.50
Language: English

Burden is a poetry collection that tells the story of a seventeen-year-old British soldier, Private Herbert Burden, who was shot for desertion during World War I. He was one of hundreds so executed. It is now understood that many had committed no crime, but were suffering from PTSD. Burden's story is told in the voice of Lance Corporal Reginald Smith, the author's uncle. The author discovered years later in a box of papers that his uncle, Lance Corporal Smith, had befriended Private Burden but then was ultimately commanded to join in the firing squad that killed his friend.

This slim book reaches below standard indictments of war--it shows us that terrifying, senseless, horrific don't go deep enough. To utter them, the eye must already be closing over. Smith's account is an object lesson in why poetry matters. It takes us to places even the best journalism can't reach.

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