I hate it when people say Owen is over-rated because of anti-war sentiment, tragic young death, etc. Because when he's on form, his technique, his combination of innovation and formalism, the way he turns everything horrible and ugly and rage-inducing into a beauty that sings off the page...
Eid al-Adha was a few days before Armistice/Remembrance/Veterans' Day. "The Parable of the Old Man and the Young" seems a propos; it isn't as well-structured a poem as the Anthem, but damn if it isn't a true thing still.
"So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went, And took the fire with him, and a knife. And as they sojourned, both of them together, Isaac the first-born spake, and said, My Father, Behold the preparations, fire and iron, But where the lamb for this burnt-offering? Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps, And builded parapets the trenches there, And stretched forth the knife to slay his son. When lo! an angel called him out of heaven, Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, Neither do anything to him. Behold, A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns; Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him. But the old man would not so, but slew his son, And half the seed of Europe, one by one."
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-11-11 08:30 pm (UTC)Eid al-Adha was a few days before Armistice/Remembrance/Veterans' Day. "The Parable of the Old Man and the Young" seems a propos; it isn't as well-structured a poem as the Anthem, but damn if it isn't a true thing still.
"So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned, both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake, and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets the trenches there,
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one."