Charles Sorley

Charles Sorley was a Scottish poet who served as a captain in the British Army during the First World War and died at the Battle of Loos in 1915. His poetry is characterized by a sober acceptance of death and a deep questioning of patriotic rhetoric, often contrasting the natural world with the mechanized violence of war. Sorley's language is direct and understated, avoiding the romanticism of earlier war poets, and his imagery frequently draws on landscapes and the common soldier's experience. His most famous poem, 'When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead', remains a powerful anti-war statement. Though his output was small, his work, collected in 'Marlborough and Other Poems' (1916), has earned him a respected place among the war poets of his generation. His ability to convey the futility and sorrow of war without sentimentality has influenced later readers and writers.