Burden - Paperback

by Douglas Burnet Smith (Author)

Shortlisted, Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award, 2021

Burden is the story of a seventeen-year-old British soldier, Private Herbert Burden, who was shot for desertion during World War I

He was one of hundreds so executed. It is now understood that many had committed no crime, but were suffering from PTSD. Burden's story is told in the voice of Lance Corporal Reginald Smith, the author's uncle. The author discovered years later in a box of papers that his uncle, Lance Corporal Smith, had befriended Private Burden but then was ultimately commanded to join in the firing squad that killed his friend. This slim book reaches below standard indictments of war--it shows us that "terrifying," "senseless," "horrific" don't go deep enough. To utter them, the eye must already be closing over. Smith's account is an object lesson in why poetry matters. It takes us to places even the best journalism can't reach.

Author Biography

Douglas Burnet Smith is the GG Award-nominated author, and Burden is his seventeenth book of poetry. He divides his time between Atlantic Canada and Athens, Greece. He is currently Writer-in-Residence for the Antikythera Archeological Dive Project on the island of Antikythera, Greece, and teaches in the English Department at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.