John Galsworthy (1867–1933), a British novelist and playwright, received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932. This poem was published in 1912 as “Persia-Moritura” in the volume Moods, Songs, and Doggerels. He addressed his “moral confusion” over World War I by donating his American earnings to relief efforts and working for several months in a French hospital for wounded soldiers.

Harvey, Geoffrey. “Galsworthy, John (1867–1933), novelist and playwright.” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. September 23, 2004. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-33314.

Galsworthy, John. “Persia–Moritura.” In Moods, Songs, and Doggerels, 56–57. New York: Scribner, 1912. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hc2qvv.

At the outbreak of the war, Iranians were in a position to establish an independent government, but the global conflict and shift of industry, armies, and naval units from coal to oil undermined the planned reforms. Its vast oil reserves and geographic location “turned Iran into one of the major theaters of war in west Asia.” Russia had occupied the northern province of Iran (Azerbaijan) in 1911 and British troops were in southern Iran, which prompted the Ottomans to invade western and north-western Iran early in the war. Iran’s government declared neutrality on November 1, 1914.

Atabaki, Touraj. “Persia/Iran.” In 1914–1918–online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, edited by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson. Freie Universität Berlin, 2014–. Article published May 2, 2016. https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/persiairan.