MORAG REID PHOTOS

At the base of Edinburgh Castle, there is a park. It’s called Princes Street Gardens – actually the park stretches along one side of Princes Street. Its divided into two parts by a street called The Mound and the castle sits at the west end of the gardens… but I digress. On our most recent trip we took the time to walk along the top path and passed a memorial to those who died during World War I, so it seemed an appropriate time to post this particular picture. Last year was the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I and three years from now we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Also known as the First World War and the Great War, it was responsible for the deaths of more than 16 million men, women and children and involved much of the Western world.

For some reason, I have always had an affinity with this time period and stories of the war. In my high school English literature class I devoured Lewis Grassic  Gibbon’s Sunset Song and the imagery of the forests in the surrounding landscape decimated by the need to build weapons, the village men not coming home and Chris’s own husband, returned unrecognizable as he suffers from shell shock. I adore the poetry of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, their poetry so beautifully written but rendering the harsh and brutal reality of the front lines. Owens poem Anthem for a Doomed Youth is still one of my favorite poems; unfortunately it still resonates in todays modern world.