On Being Asked to Write a Poem Against the War in Vietnam
Well I have and in fact
more than one and I'll
tell you this too
I wrote one against
Algeria that nightmare
and another against
Korea and another
against the one
I was in
and I don't remember
how many against
the three
when I was a boy
Abyssinia Spain and
Harlan County
and not one
breath was restored
to one
shattered throat
mans womans or childs
not one not
one
but death went on and on
never looking aside
except now and then
with a furtive half-smile
to make sure I was noticing.
Commentary
Poems on war sometimes seem so useless and uncalled for, like flinging bits of confetti at this pitiless juggernaut. This poem sort of captures that, right from the throwaway tone it begins with to the bland monstrousness of the end.
— Amulya
Martin adds
This is indeed a brilliant poem, but its very brilliance serves to mask an underlying fallacy. The purpose of war poetry is not so much to “restore breath to one shattered throat”, but to show people what exactly war is, in a way that the safely sanitised capsules delivered by newspapers and television cannot or do not. “The pity of war, the pity war distilled” needs to be adequately conveyed to the populace-at-large, and I submit that poets, as much as anyone else, have served to counteract the “dulce et decorum est” blood-and-glory mindset of an earlier day.
— Martin
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
SarCanz · 5 April 2003
[Martin adds]
This is indeed a brilliant poem, but its very brilliance serves to mask an underlying fallacy. The purpose of war poetry is not so much to “restore breath to one shattered throat”, but to show people what exactly war is, in a way that the safely sanitised capsules delivered by newspapers and television cannot or do not. “The pity of war, the pity war distilled” needs to be adequately conveyed to the populace-at-large, and I submit that poets, as much as anyone else, have served to counteract the “dulce et decorum est” blood-and-glory mindset of an earlier day.
martin
Martin,
I really agree with you about the role of war poetry. And I think that the current war, shows how important that role is – and that war poetry can be a force for good.
I wish my government had not started this war, but I think that the way the US is conducting the war shows that people have heard the poets and others who, for so long, have conveyed “the pity of war” to the populace-at-large. Every war is a tragedy but, compared to many wars, this one is turning out to be considerably less brutal.
I think that has a lot to do with the fact that American leaders know that their own people understand “exactly what war is” and don’t like it. Poets (and artists, writers, film makers, musicians, and actors) keep on reminding us of the reality of war, and there is little the government can do to stop them. (Indeed, the Pentagon’s decision to “embed” journalists rather than keeping them at a distance and trying to make the war look like a video game – as it did in the Gulf War – reflects the military’s acceptance of that.)
Even the most hawkish American commercial TV has not been able to limit itself to “dulce et decorum est” in covering this war, and the coverage in American newspapers, magazines, and on American public radio and television has not “safely sanitized” the war. I think that is a tribute to war poets and other artists who have continued to distill “the pity of war” even when it did seem like they were “flinging bits of confetti at [a] pitiless juggernaut.”
It may not be perfect, but it really is some sort of progress. Wilfred Owen’s warnings to the next generations have not been wasted.
Sally