![article-2230190-15E929C5000005DC-38_964x639[1]](https://charactersfromthekitchen.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/article-2230190-15e929c5000005dc-38_964x6391.jpg)
The following poem is by Thomas Hardy. Entitled ‘The Man he Killed,’ it sums up for me the futility of war and how it affects ordinary people.
Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because—
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That’s clear enough; although
He thought he’d ‘list, perhaps,
Off-hand like—just as I—
Was out of work—had sold his traps—
No other reason why.
Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You’d treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown.
(photograph from the Daily Mail archive)
Yes, the futility of war…I mentioned Thomas Hardy in my post but for a very different reason!
Yours was a very interesting post about your husband’s Uncle. Seems that several of us have highlighted the same theme today 😉
Great, timely poem.
Thanks, Gwen
Lovely poem, poignant.
I like the War Poets. We teach them to our year 9’s and while some of them start off thinking they hate poetry, by the end of the unit many of them have changed their minds 🙂
“For young Willie McBride, it’s all happened again…
and again…
and again…
and again…
and again.”
(From “No Man’s Land,” 1978 by Eric Bogle)
Both the videos that you put on your page this morning are very fitting. I especially like ‘Normandy in Newfoundland’ – which you sent me once before, back in June and it tied in with my posts perfectly – as indeed it does today.
Lovely photograph and very apt poem. My two grandfathers. One killed. One lived but must have killed. A gentle man. Wouldn’t speak of the horrors. Gassed, wounded, taken prisoner. Forever changed physically and emotionally by the evil that is war.
“When will we ever learn…”
I don’t suppose we ever will, sadly. I think Bob Dylan sums it up pretty well, too:
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky ?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry ?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died ?
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
I always felt “where have all the flowers gone” captured it well
Time to polish my Dad’s medals. Mum have them to me before she died with strict instructions. “Polish them every November 11”. This will be my thirteenth polishing.
Thank you, Jenny.
🙂
Never read Hardy’s poetry though I read most of his novels when I was younger. I see he wrote it in 1902 and must have despaired to see it all happening again in 1914.
Rod (above) mentions that many soldiers never speak about the horrors they’ve seen. We’ve one old soldier here in Jersey who has just told it as it was, no punches pulled, in a new book. Desperate stuff.
We read some of Hardy’s poetry at school. It was about a bird. I was dubious – it made me laugh because it was so intense and it’s just a bird for crying out loud. (It wasn’t supposed to be funny.)
This is much more like it though – I didn’t realise he wrote stuff like this.
Roy -that book would definitely interest my son – can I have the title please?
Here’s the Amazon link Jenny, only in paperback at the moment though
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stinkers-Nine-Lives-Dunkirk-Beyond/dp/0992715903/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384205951&sr=1-1&keywords=stinkers+nine+lives
Thanks!
The answer is, indeed, blowing in the wind, and we don’t pay attention.
A college friend whose brother died in Viet Nam comes to visit us every Veteran’s Day. She still misses him, but she also is being proudly brave now that her youngest son has just enlisted in the army.
How is it we think we can hate and kill those we’re told to hate and kill…and be proudly brave to send off those we love to do it?
I don’t know Marylin. It’s one of those unanswerable questions and sadly, I think it will continue to be so.
It’s definitely an apt poem. One of those subjects I feel so deeply about, I can’t even find words to mention it. I basically ignored the day yesterday, stayed away from social media, because I just didn’t want to think about war or the trauma of veterans, and those who lost dear ones.
Here in the UK we observe a two minute silence to mark Armistice Day. I watched on TV the live football match between two of our largest teams – the crowd numbered over 65,000. Before the match started, the players from both teams linked arms on the pitch and bowed their heads. There was total, total silence – you could have heard the proverbial pin drop. It was impressive.
I don’t think a stadium full of Americans could pull that off. Sadly. Too much rebellion in our blood (which sometimes is just plain disrespectful, in my opinion).
Jenny great poem and superb photo for a great cause.
Thanks, Doron!
I don’t remember that one, but like one of your other commenters I read the novels but not the poetry.
I usually post an Owen poem but as I wasn’t around I didn’t. I do like war poetry though. I have an excellent Oxford book of war poetry, or some such similar title.
I like the war poets too – one of my favourites is by Owen – Dulce et Decorum Est. I can hear it being recited in punk poet style, with a real snarl at the end :
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Perhaps they were the punk poets of their generation…
Last year’s post: http://wp.me/p1XwsS-16O
although I’ve used the lines you quoted on earlier ones too.
Great minds, I see… 🙂