Naming of Parts
"Vixi duellis nuper idoneus
Et militavi non sine glori"
Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But today,
Today we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And today we have naming of parts.
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easily
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For today we have naming of parts.
Commentary
From 'Lessons of the War'
Dedicated to Alan Mitchell.
I remember reading a not terribly distinguished parody of this poem when I was in school; many years later, when I discovered the original, I was surprised to see how very good it was. Indeed, it’s one of the more celebrated poems of the last half-century (though the years have not been particularly kind to Henry Reed: these days we see him more as a failed Modernist than as a revolutionary Romantic), and it’s not hard to see why: the tone of voice, the choice of phrase and the repetitive patterning are all instantly recognizable.
That said, though, it is a poem that simply cries out for a parody, isn’t it?
— Thomas
Links
Here’s a link to an essay on ‘The Imagery of Genesis in Henry Reed’s ‘The Naming of Parts’’: http://barney.gonzaga.edu/~mquieto/papers/naming.html . It’s an interesting enough piece, though it suffers somewhat from an overly pretentious and (imho) juvenile style. An extract should suffice to show what I mean:
“Guns and gardens, soldiers and bees: the poem relates the unrelated in order to draw a clear dichotomy between the forces of life and the forces of death. However, the poem goes further than merely contrasting opposites. The structure and language of the poem combine to demonstrate how one should become the other. The eschatological hope expressed by the harmonious image of this Eden begs and demands a transformation or conversion into communion with the natural order. The poem demonstrates that war is contrary to nature.”
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
John Nevill · 25 March 2003
The poem, as anyone who has been a soldier will recognise, is a contrast between the repetitious boredom of an NCO going through a drill learned by rote and the simple distraction of what is going on around you on a warm summers day.
Anne.Gibson · 21 July 2003
For me this poem is about the futility of Naming, which, especially in our Western culture with its rather narrow view of the scientific, tends to stand in for a sense of being in control when we clearly are not, and for Understanding when clearly we do not. The naming of parts in this poem stands in opposition to what simply IS in nature - the silent eloquence of the trees, the glistening japonica blossoms, the bees going about their business - in constrast to our own inept fumblings with the weapons of war…. Where are we to seek Wisdom……? Put down your gun and open your eyes and ears to the world.
Anne
Andrea Skennerton · 13 August 2003
The system of war and nature is expressed here. The expression of routine with an instrument of death together with the unexplainable routine of Nature is a paradoxy that can not go without comment. It is a very sad poem that captures the grief of the New Model Army pre-campaign grief. Beautiful.
Joseph Jerzewski · 19 July 2004
The people who have left comments here have missed the poets purpose and at least one of his uses of imagery. When Reed writes “Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards” he is describing the bullets flying past the soldiers heads as “bees”. This imagery is clear to anyone who has ever been under fire, and has been used by many poets and soldiers alike to describe the sound.
J.M.Sykes · 19 September 2004
John Nevill’s comment says it all. It conveys well the disorientation felt by any sensitive person on being drafted into the armed forces and subjected to mind-numbing instruction, however necessary.
I speak as one who went through square-bashing at an impressionable age, though in 1947, rather than during WWII.
David · 21 September 2004
Um, folks, you are missing a point here, I think.
I remember this poem from many years ago, in college. I did not need any one to tell me that the “parts” being named here stand in for other parts that are not named–in polite society. The private parts.
Um, the bolt sliding back and forth and opening the “breech” and “easing the spring.” We are speaking, very wonderfully and metaphorically, of sex, that is, making love, making life. The poet is, among many other things, implicitly comparing what he and his fellow soldiers are doing–learning to use metal “parts” to kill their fellow humans–with what they could be using other, fleshly “parts” to do: making humans, not killing them. What is spring the
traditional sense of? Love, of course. What do bees do? (Yes they are bullets, here, also, I am sure). Bees fertilize plants. They make sex with plants so that plants can make fruit.
The poem is about love-making, what young men SHOULD be doing with their parts, and what in spring they should be learning to do and enjoying the
learning–instead, alas, they are learning to work guns (um, what are guns a traditional substitute for? a man’s private part, right??) to kill instead of to make life.
It’s about sex!!!
best,
David
Tom Schweiger · 5 January 2005
Thank you David. I was beginning to worry about the others. I wonder what they think about when they hear a dull compulsory lecture on a warm spring day?
Kuyagerald · 23 January 2005
“And rapidly backwards and forwards, the early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers.” Obviously, Reed uses nature imagery to create sexual suppression. This poem is more than a contrast between war and nature; it’s a love poem. One word gives it all away, Japonica, a flower that can only be found in Japan and some parts of Philippines. The soldier has fallen in love with a Japanese woman during the war, and he is daydreaming about her. To love this woman is to love his enemy. The unnatural nature of this love is enforced by his military beliefs. Henry Reed is merely portraying a man’s conflict with the idea of an interracial relationship during a war.
Gerald
John Viner · 12 May 2005
This poem came back to remembrance while I was walking through the quiet English countryside on a glorious spring day, indeed, japonica is blooming in my garden as I write. I studied this poem at university and brought to it some intimate knowledge of the Lee Enfield .303 rifle to which Reed is referring. This weapon remained in UK service - at reserve level - right up to the early 1970s, and I well remember the order to “Ease Springs”.
Some of the comments posted here are sensitive and reflect the poet’s intention, some are pretentious claptrap and, as for the poem being about sex, well poor Henry Reed would turn in his grave. This is a cleverly crafted and evocative poem and one which I am delighted to recall with great delight. That is what Reed would have enjoyed.
Public Internet User · 3 July 2006
Actually, I’ve just read the other four poems in the set, Lessons of War, and he does bring in a lot of sexual imagery in the later poems.
I’m inclined to think, however, that Naming of Parts is supposed to be read relatively ‘innocently’ - as a contrast between the dullness (and horror of preparing for war) and the beauty of the trees, bees, and flowers.
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Brian P. Sullivan · 11 August 2006
I’m more than just a little amused at the suggestion that Henry Reed would “turn in his grave” at the notion that Naming of Parts is about sex. It is precisely about sex, specifically the contrast between the tension and ennui of Army life which young men should not be pursuing, and the tension and ennui of what young men should be pursuing.
Clearly the commenter who said otherwise is unfamiliar with the rest of the “Complete Lessons of the War” cycle. I strongly suggest he familiarize himself with “Judging of Distances” to see what Reed was aiming for with this cycle of poems. If you can’t draw a comparison to the female form and the tray described in “Movement of Bodies” with Reed’s lines “Here is a wooded headland, with a crown of bushy top trees on; and proceeding downward we take in at a glance a variety of gorges and knolls and plateaus and basins and saddles, somewhat symmetrically put” perhaps you will never get the knack of judging a poem. “But the various holds and rolls and throws and breakfalls / Will always come in useful. And never be frightened / To tackle from behind: it may not be clean to do so / But this is global war.”
Or at least the irony of the human condition.
Larry · 31 October 2006
Reed is incredible! Who would I be to criticize such a memory of endeavors so close to my own? He reads like a brother in arms who has sewn his heart in red fields of the shooting arts.
I am so thankful Winning Writers gave him a forum for his “Parts.” larry
Tracy Oneill · 13 November 2006
It is encouraging the moments in moments moving. The cycling of life is revealed newborn as spring as well as the cold powerlust that comes from it.The innocence of those preparing,cold ignorance in rifles but nature ever cycling so wonderous so delicate. imagery that conjours feeling. I like it. From Fluffy and Feefee loves it to
mbloom104 · 27 March 2007
Does anyone know the latin quote? Where it comes from and what it means?