Verses of Change: Democratisation of Poetry in Ford Madox Ford’s “Antwerp” and Nazım Hikmet Ran’s “The Legend of the National Militia”

Abstract

Wars have always been echoed in literature as manifestations of humankind's desire for supremacy and power across history. Twentieth-century poetry, marked by the turmoil of the two World Wars and the wars of independence, reflects poets' patriotic and personal responses to the power struggles and expansionist policies of imperialist countries. These poems also challenge traditional war narratives that glorify politicians while ignoring the horrors of war and the ordinary people whose heroic struggles changed the course of history. Ford Madox Ford, one of the leading Modernist poets and novelists in English literature, and Nazım Hikmet, a pivotal figure in twentieth-century Turkish poetry, wrote unique narrative poems that critically reimagine war and attribute heroism to common people. This article contends that Ford’s “In October 1914 [Antwerp]” and N. Hikmet’s “The Legend of the National Militia” (Kuvayi Milliye Destanı) mirror the poets’ attempts to democratise poetry by portraying the extraordinary resistance of ordinary people instead of the idealised hero archetype. Furthermore, the poems serve to politicise modernist verse by addressing the suffering of ordinary individuals and their struggles against expansionist countries and calling for the recognition of alternative histories. While Ford’s poem immortalises the martyrdom of Belgians and the agonies of Belgian refugees brought on by the conflicting interests of hegemonic countries, Nazım’s poem portrays the defiance of the ignored people of Anatolia against both imperialist powers and the unjust social structures.