By William Grafft
Introduction to War:
The great Chinese war strategist Sun Tzu once said, "There is no instance of a Nation benefiting from prolonged warfare" and he was right. War is never ending battle to end something somebody else started, and there are many hardships during these wars, that some people choose to block out of their minds. Just like in the poem "I Hear an Army" where black knights from Medieval times charge into a village and slaughter and pillage for no good reason. Again like in the poem "Veterans of Foreign Wars" where there are many people, good people, who lost their personality (even their lives) from the horrors of war. This anthology is about War, what it does to people, nations, and the world.
I Have a Rendezvous with Death
by Alan Seeger
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air—
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath—
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.
God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear...
But I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
Response to Meeting with Death:
“I Have a Rendezvous with Death” is a poem about the horrors of war, and what has occurred during the course of many battles, but it talks about this after w. It repeats, “I have a rendezvous with Death” many times during the course of the poem, repeated to add emphasis to this fact (Death is also a proper noun). The author also talks about Death, as stated earlier, in proper noun form and implies that Death is a part of life.
The Fall of Rome
by W. H. Auden
(for Cyril Connolly)
The piers are pummelled by the waves;
In a lonely field the rain
Lashes an abandoned train;
Outlaws fill the mountain caves.
Fantastic grow the evening gowns;
Agents of the Fisc pursue
Absconding tax-defaulters through
The sewers of provincial towns.
Private rites of magic send
The temple prostitutes to sleep;
All the literati keep
An imaginary friend.
Cerebrotonic Cato may
Extol the Ancient Disciplines,
But the muscle-bound Marines
Mutiny for food and pay.
Caesar's double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.
Unendowed with wealth or pity,
Little birds with scarlet legs,
Sitting on their speckled eggs,
Eye each flu-infected city.
Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.
Response to The Fall of Rome:
“The Fall of Rome” is a poem about what happens when, and after a civilization falls and goes in depth to a world at war. It shows all the horrors that war brings and that every city, even great ones, must fall eventually. Like the last line on the 6th stanza, “Eye each flu-infected city” shows that even something like a plague, or illness, can bring down the mightiest empires eventually.
I Hear an Army
by James Joyce
I hear an army charging upon the land,
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.
They cry unto the night their battle-name:
I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.
They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
Response to I Hear an Army:
“I Hear an Army” is a poem about the horrors of medieval raids, and the arrogance of rich knights in shining black armor “They cry into the night their battle-name.” All the lines in these poems are of the midnight raids and the toll they take on innocent people and enemies alike, it also shows that humans show no mercy and must think before they act. I think this poem is an excellent example of the sounds of war, like “The Star Spangled Banner.” Although it is a 20th century poem it still accurately depicts medieval warfare and the noises and panic of a midnight raid (which still happens today).
Veterans of Foreign Wars
by Edward Hirsch
Let's not forget the General
Shuffling out in his gray slippers
To feed the pigeons in Logan Square.
He wore a battered White Sox cap
And a heavy woolen scarf tossed
Over his shoulder, even in summer.
I remember how he muttered to himself
And coughed into his newspaper
And complained about his gout
To the other Latvian exiles,
The physicist who lived on Gogol Street
In Riga, my grandfather's hometown,
The auxiliary policeman from Daugavpils,
And the chemical engineer,
Who always gave me hard candy,
Though grandfather spit
And grandmother hurried me away
When she saw them coming.
Response to Veterans of Foreign Wars:
“Veterans of Foreign Wars” is about what people are like after wars, what war does to people and why it is such a horrible thing. It also shows that some people do escape from war and become good, hard-working people:
“The auxiliary policeman from Daugavpils,
And the chemical engineer,
Who always gave me hard candy.”
These are people that became better people after being touched by violence. Although the poem also shows that people will never stay untouched by war:
“Though grandfather spit
And grandmother hurried me away
When she saw them coming.”
by Alan Seeger
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air—
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath—
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.
God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear...
But I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
Response to Meeting with Death:
“I Have a Rendezvous with Death” is a poem about the horrors of war, and what has occurred during the course of many battles, but it talks about this after w. It repeats, “I have a rendezvous with Death” many times during the course of the poem, repeated to add emphasis to this fact (Death is also a proper noun). The author also talks about Death, as stated earlier, in proper noun form and implies that Death is a part of life.
The Fall of Rome
by W. H. Auden
(for Cyril Connolly)
The piers are pummelled by the waves;
In a lonely field the rain
Lashes an abandoned train;
Outlaws fill the mountain caves.
Fantastic grow the evening gowns;
Agents of the Fisc pursue
Absconding tax-defaulters through
The sewers of provincial towns.
Private rites of magic send
The temple prostitutes to sleep;
All the literati keep
An imaginary friend.
Cerebrotonic Cato may
Extol the Ancient Disciplines,
But the muscle-bound Marines
Mutiny for food and pay.
Caesar's double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.
Unendowed with wealth or pity,
Little birds with scarlet legs,
Sitting on their speckled eggs,
Eye each flu-infected city.
Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.
Response to The Fall of Rome:
“The Fall of Rome” is a poem about what happens when, and after a civilization falls and goes in depth to a world at war. It shows all the horrors that war brings and that every city, even great ones, must fall eventually. Like the last line on the 6th stanza, “Eye each flu-infected city” shows that even something like a plague, or illness, can bring down the mightiest empires eventually.
I Hear an Army
by James Joyce
I hear an army charging upon the land,
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.
They cry unto the night their battle-name:
I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.
They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
Response to I Hear an Army:
“I Hear an Army” is a poem about the horrors of medieval raids, and the arrogance of rich knights in shining black armor “They cry into the night their battle-name.” All the lines in these poems are of the midnight raids and the toll they take on innocent people and enemies alike, it also shows that humans show no mercy and must think before they act. I think this poem is an excellent example of the sounds of war, like “The Star Spangled Banner.” Although it is a 20th century poem it still accurately depicts medieval warfare and the noises and panic of a midnight raid (which still happens today).
Veterans of Foreign Wars
by Edward Hirsch
Let's not forget the General
Shuffling out in his gray slippers
To feed the pigeons in Logan Square.
He wore a battered White Sox cap
And a heavy woolen scarf tossed
Over his shoulder, even in summer.
I remember how he muttered to himself
And coughed into his newspaper
And complained about his gout
To the other Latvian exiles,
The physicist who lived on Gogol Street
In Riga, my grandfather's hometown,
The auxiliary policeman from Daugavpils,
And the chemical engineer,
Who always gave me hard candy,
Though grandfather spit
And grandmother hurried me away
When she saw them coming.
Response to Veterans of Foreign Wars:
“Veterans of Foreign Wars” is about what people are like after wars, what war does to people and why it is such a horrible thing. It also shows that some people do escape from war and become good, hard-working people:
“The auxiliary policeman from Daugavpils,
And the chemical engineer,
Who always gave me hard candy.”
These are people that became better people after being touched by violence. Although the poem also shows that people will never stay untouched by war:
“Though grandfather spit
And grandmother hurried me away
When she saw them coming.”
Keep in mind the anthology does have a graph at the beginning, telling of what war entails. That is meant as a reminder for reading the poems.
Citations: All images gained from Google Images