 While not an illustration in itself , Christopher Nevinson ’ s statement against the slaughter of World War I in his painting Paths of Glory ( 1917 ) takes its title from another line in the Elegy , “ The paths of glory lead but to the grave ” . The title had already been used two years before by Irvin S. Cobb in an account of his journalistic experiences at the start of that war . It was then taken up in the unrelated Humphrey Cobb 's 1935 anti @-@ war novel , although in this case the name was suggested for the untitled manuscript in a competition held by the publisher . His book also served in its turn as the basis for Stanley Kubrick ’ s film Paths of Glory , released in 1957 . This example is just one more among many illustrating the imaginative currency that certain lines of the poem continue to have , over and above their original significance . 
