The battle that birthed Middle-earth and modern poetry—yes, Tolkien was there.
The 1916 Battle of the Somme remains the most famous battle of World War I, remembered for its bloodshed and its limited territorial gains. What is often overlooked, however, is the literary importance of the Somme: more writers and poets fought in it than in any other battle in history. Narrated by Michael Sheen, War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme details the experiences of the poets and writers who served in the battle. The work of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, David Jones, Isaac Rosenberg and JRR Tolkien (who arrived at the Western Front with ambitions to be a poet) was informed and transformed by the battle. Taken together, their experiences allow us to see this dreadful historical event through multiple points of view. The film uses animation, documentary accounts, surviving artefacts, battalion war diaries and the landscape itself to reconnect this literature to the events that inspired it.
Direction
Sebastian Barfield weaves animation with archival footage seamlessly.
Writing
The narration lets poets speak for themselves—devastatingly effective.
Production
Landscape shots reconnect literature to actual Somme geography.
Director
Sebastian Barfield
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
David Jones's 'In Parenthesis' took 20 years to write and TS Eliot called it a masterpiece—yet Jones was nearly mute about his actual Somme service.
This film helped spark renewed academic interest in Isaac Rosenberg, the least known of the 'big five' poets featured, who died in 1918.
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