Sherry Chandler » Four Years
Four Years
The Owl
Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved;
Cold, yet heat within me that was proof
Against the North wind; tired, yet so that rest
Had seemed the sweetest thing under a roof.
Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest,
Knowing how hungry, cold and tired was I.
All of the night was quite barred out except
An owl’s cry, a most melancholy cry.
Shaken out long and clear upon the hill,
No merry note, nor cause of merriment,
But one telling me plain what I escaped
And others could not, that night, as in I went.
And salted was my food, and my repose,
Salted and sobered, too, by the bird’s voice
Speaking for all who lay under the stars,
Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.
— Edward Thomas (1878-1917), text from Against Forgetting (Norton 1993)
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4 Comments
1. Terry replies at 19th March 2007, 5:44 pm :
We’ve reached the point where it’s difficult for me to remember what it was like before the war, before Bush & Co.’s reign. I’ve become resigned to the death and destruction, and feeling helpless to stop it. It’s like being a child again and watching the body count tallies on the nightly news, wondering vaguely which side we were, North or South.
2. sherry replies at 19th March 2007, 6:15 pm :
War is peace, Terry, in the immortal words of Big Brother. I think this government has taken 1984 as an operating manual. My spiffy new “This Day in History” plugin is a sad commentary on the state of our foreign affairs. For longer than the entire history of this blog, we have been at war.
3. Helen Losse replies at 19th March 2007, 10:24 pm :
And the sad thing is when it’s finally over, nothing will have changed except for the families and friends of the dead on both sides.
4. sherry replies at 20th March 2007, 10:23 am :
I fear you’re right, Helen.
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