At the Cenotaph - Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)
I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff,
Standing bare-headed by the Cenotaph:
Unostentatious and respectful, there
He stood, and offered up the following prayer.
'Make them forget, O Lord, what this Memorial
Means; their discredited ideas revive;
Breed new belief that War is purgatorial
Proof of the pride and power of being alive;
Men's biologic urge to readjust
The Map of Europe, Lord of Hosts, increase;
Lift up their hearts in large destructive lust;
And crown their heads with blind vindictive Peace.'
The Prince of Darkness to the Cenotaph
Bowed. As he walked away I heard him laugh.
4 comments:
heavy
this is a great poem. any idea what year it was written?
sassoon has a funny relationship to the reading public b/c, as one of my profs put it, "he didn't have the good sense to die in the war" like many of the other war poets did, and therefore went on to be a life-long and outspoken anti-war activist. during his lifetime, this made him the object of a lot of criticism in a way that Owen's work never was.
Can't find a year but did discover that:
- it was written specifically about Ribbentrop when he came to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier, which best as I can tell happened in France in 1938, and makes this an interesting juxtaposition of WWI and WWII writing and experience.
http://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/3071605?language=en-GB&location=IRL
- Sassoon edited Owen's Anthem for a Doomed Youth
that's pretty intense.
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