Poetry Emotion (From Oxford Mail)

Poetry Emotion

6:00pm Thursday 10th November 2011 in Travel Reviews By Reg Little

Ahead of Remembrance Sunday, REG LITTLE takes a poignant trip to the French village of Ors, which has become a shrine to Wilfred Owen, the legendary war poet.

IN a small village in northern France last month hundreds of visitors, including ambassadors and Government ministers, gathered outside a startling monument.

With its stark white walls, a roof representing an open book and bold circular ramp, it is more like a giant sculpture than a house.

But it also happens to be a new literary shrine to Wilfred Owen, the greatest of the war poets, who is buried nearby in a cemetery at Ors.

Thousands of visitors head for northern France at this time of year to tour the battlefields of the Great War and see the monuments to the fallen and vast but beautifully maintained war cemeteries.

As part of a vast project to honour the sacrifices made by the lost generations who fought for peace, Remembrance Trails have been introduced to bring the past to life.

One of the most popular destinations is the beautiful restored town of Cambrai and the surrounding countryside, which in November 1917 saw a famous British offensive using large numbers of tanks for the first time.

However, the small village of Ors remains the destination for those wishing to follow in the footsteps of Wilfred Owen, who described the brutality and horror of the war in poems such as Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth.

Now thanks to the Mayor of Ors, Jacky Duminy, there is a new focus for Owen pilgrims in the village where he is buried.

It has been created within a forester’s house on the edge of the village. In its cellar, Lieutenant Owen penned his last letter to his mother, while holed up on November 3 1918.

Crammed in with 29 others, he struggled to write for “pokes, nudges and jolts” from the other inmates. He told his mother: “There is no danger down here, or if any, it will be well over before you read these lines. I hope you are as warm as I am....Of this I am certain you could not be visited by a band of friends half so fine as surround me here.” The following morning in one of the last actions of the Great War, Owen and his fellow soldiers made their way to the Sambre Canal. Trying to cross the canal in what now appears as a suicidal mission, the men came under murderous fire from well dug in Germans and Owen was killed, just seven days before Armistice Day.

But rather than turn the house into a museum, the French turned to the British artist and Turner Prize nominee Simon Patterson. The cellar remains unchanged but the old building has been painted like “bleached bone” and the modern art extension added.

A walk up a ramp leads you to a large empty space. There are no tanks, guns, photographs or Great War memorabilia here. When the lights dim you see Owen’s most famous poem Dulce et Decorum Est etched on a translucent skin of glass covering the four walls. The voice of the actor Kenneth Branagh reading Owen’s poems then breaks the silence.

Cambrai serves as the perfect base to visit other historic towns such as le Cateau Cambresis, the birthplace of Henri Matisse, one of the 20th century’s most influential artists. He bestowed a magnificent collection of his drawings and paintings to his home town, now housed in the Matisse museum.

After that head across the road to the historic brewery housed in a Benedictine Abbey, which offers much more than a taste of history. Vivat Beer is still produced there.

* The Remembrance Trails project was set up to help those who go to northern France to pay tribute to family members or simply have an interest in World War One.

For more information visit www.remembrancetrails-northern france.com.

Reg Little travelled from London St Pancras to Lille in northern France, with Eurostar, which operates up to nine daily services from London St Pancras International to Lille with return fares from £69. Tickets are available from www.eurostar.com or 08432 186 186.

He stayed at the family-run Le Mouton Blanc, in Cambrai.