sovay | Our young men shall see visions

Current Music: Eliza Carthy, "Benjamin Bowmaneer"

Our young men shall see visions

If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
—Rudyard Kipling, "Common Form" (1918)

Left this link for our friend

blue_vervain, too:

"Old Coat"--though, you may already know it. Or have it. As may he, indeed.

I wonder if he included himself in the condemnation. I rather think he did.

Kipling is one of the great writers of WWI- not only for the poems but for stories like Mary Postgate, The Janeites, A Madonna of the Trenches, The Gardener.

Edited 2008-11-11 16:45 (UTC)

I wonder if he included himself in the condemnation. I rather think he did.

I'm absolutely sure he did; this is dated after his own son's death, and he was never a careless writer, he cannot but have meant that resonance.

Kipling is one of the great writers of WWI- not only for the poems but for stories like Mary Postgate, The Janeites, A Madonna of the Trenches, The Gardener.

Yes. And I would add "In the Interests of the Brethren", because it may be about the Masons but actually it's about betrayal, and universality, and war...

I'm absolutely sure he did; this is dated after his own son's death, and he was never a careless writer, he cannot but have meant that resonance.

Yes.

"Have you news of my boy Jack?"

Yes. You can't have The Janeites without In The Interests of the Brethren. This conversation has just prompted me to reread them both.

Indeed.

I have been in the thick of that war all year at work, cataloging thousands upon thousands of pamphlets full of lies.

Nine

Indeed.

Yes.

And I can't help but wonder now, Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause?
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame,
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it's all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

- Eric Bogle, 1976

They ask me where I've been,
And what I've done and seen.
But what can I reply
Who know it wasn't I,
But someone just like me,
Who went across the sea
And with my head and hands
Killed men in foreign lands...
Though I must bear the blame,
Because he bore my name.
~Wilfred Gibson, "Back"