CONTEXT

Knowing the context of a poem is important to understand the poem itself. here I've got a small collection of facts about Vera Brittain herself along with a few facts about the poem.

Vera Brittain

- born in December 1893

- awarded an exhibition to Somerville College,Oxford to study English Literature (1914)

- was in a relationship with her brothers friend, Roland Leighton (1914)

- became engaged while Roland was off at war (August 1915)

- began nursing at the Devonshire Hospital, Buxton (June 1915)

- was transferred to a military hospital in Camberwell

- found out about Rolands death while waiting for him to come home (26 December 1915)

- he was shot in France by a German sniper

- went on to write Perhaps (1934)

Perhaps

- released in 1934
- dedicated to Vera Brittain's dead fiance 
- during WW2
- written by Vera Brittain

WW1 

- 1914 - 1918 

- Great Britain declared war on Germany in 1914

- most of France had been taken over Germany
- French army collapsed in 1917