'The Pity of War'at the Scottish Poetry Library for ANZAC day

'The
Pity of War': poetry about war from Australia, New Zealand and other countries
to commemorate ANZAC Day

Saturday
25 April, 2 - 3 pm
Scottish Poetry Library, Crichton's Close,
Canongate (just off the lower Royal Mile), Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Free (Donations welcome for
refreshments being provided)

Listen
to poetry from Australia, New Zealand and beyond to commemorate ANZAC Day, then
browse the new collection of New Zealand poetry until the Library closes at
5pm. Organised by the New Zealand Society Scotland & the Scottish
Poetry Library - directions to the venue can be found at www.spl.org.uk or tel:
0131 557 2876 or email: [email protected]. The Scottish Poetry Library has a
collection of New Zealand poems - more details can also be found at www.spl.org.uk.

• 'The Pity of
  War' is the name of a poem by war poet, Wilfred Owen
• This poetry
  event has been planned so people can first attend the ANZAC Day Service at the
  Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle at 12noon organised by the
  Royal British Legion. For more information about the service at the Castle and
  other Scottish services - such as the one supported by the New Zealand Society
  Scotland at Western Cemetary, Arbroath on Sunday 26 April visit:
  http://www.nzembassy.com/news.cfm?CFID=24839699&CFTOKEN=22463159&c=14&l=56&i=5650 or www.nzsscotland.org.uk
• On 25 April each year New Zealanders and Australians commemorate
  their war dead. This anniversary is called ANZAC Day in honour of the men of the
  Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who died during the almost-suicidal
  landings at Gallipoli in the Dardanelles. The part that New Zealand and
  Australian servicemen and women have played in other conflicts on distant shores
  is also remembered on 25 April.

• ANZAC is the acronym for Australian and New
  Zealand Army Corps, the formation created in December 1914 by grouping the
  Australian Imperial Force and New Zealand Expeditionary Force stationed in Egypt
  under the command of Lieutenant-General William Birdwood. Initially the term
  'Australasian Corps' had been mooted for this force, but there was a reluctance
  among both Australians and New Zealanders to lose their separate identities
  completely. The acronym itself was probably devised at Birdwood's headquarters
  by a New Zealand clerk, Sergeant K.M. Little, for use on a rubber stamp. Some
  time later it was taken on as the telegraph code word for the corps. Consisting
  of the 1st Australian Division and the New Zealand and Australian Division
  (under Major-General A.J. Godley), the corps made its operational debut at
  Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. The small cove where the Australian and New
  Zealand troops landed came to be called ‘ANZAC' and the word eventually was used
  to describe any Australian or New Zealand soldier.

• Gallipoli
  was the World War I campaign which forged New Zealand and Australian troops into
  ANZACs. The Gallipoli Peninsula assault was intended to give the British Navy
  command of the Turkish-held Dardanelles. The New Zealand Expeditionary Force
  which left New Zealand in October 1914 combined with their Australian
  counterparts to form the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). Along
  with some British units they mounted the amphibious expedition. The Gallipoli
  assault through Anzac Cove, which for the New Zealanders began late morning on
  25 April 1915, ended some eight months later as a saga of errors and horrors -
  the planners making the errors and the men enduring the horrors. The cost to New
  Zealand forces only was a staggering 88 per cent casualty rate. New Zealand and
  Australia's reaction to the 'debt of suffering' was to establish ANZAC Day as an
  annual day of commemoration on 25 April.

• The
  following poem features in any ANZAC commemorations:
• They
  shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
  Age shall not weary them,
  nor the years condemn
  At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
  we
  will remember them.