Lest we forget.

[prendrelemick]

It's Remembrance day in the UK, and poetry is playing a big part in the ceremonies up and down the country.

These lines from Stevie Smith are going through my head.

"The lads from the village, we read in the lay,
By medalled commanders are muddled away,-"

[Lokasenna]

They had Sir Ian McKellan on Andrew Marr this morning reading Wilfred Owen's Anthem for Doomed Youth. It was very moving.

[prendrelemick]

They had "Forever England" too on the Andrew Marr Show, but really that verse from "For the Fallen" is the most significant and the most appropriate.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

[Mohammad Ahmad]

"The lads from the village, we read in the lay,
I am fortunate to read this but my web does not help me to completely find
If possible post the link
Lads from England countryside, possibly the poet was very enjoyed on this to the very remarkable point of time, the ancient time which almost is tasteful surprising us

[prendrelemick]

"The lads from the village, we read in the lay,
I am fortunate to read this but my web does not help me to completely find
If possible post the link
Lads from England countryside, possibly the poet was very enjoyed on this to the very remarkable point of time, the ancient time which almost is tasteful surprising us

I cannot find a link, it is a very obscure poem from a minor poet. But I will type it out.

It is about war and the poetry of war.

The Lads Of The Village

The lads of the village, we read in the lay,
By medalled commanders are muddled away,
And the picture that the poet makes is not very gay.

Poet, let the red blood flow, it makes the pattern better,
And let the tears flow, too, and grief stand that is their begetter,
And let man have his self-forged chains and hug every fetter.

For without the juxtaposition of muddles, meddles and clay.
Would the picture be so very much more gay,
Would it not be a frivolous dance upon a summer's day?

O sigh no more: Away with the folly of commanders.
That will not take a better song upon the field of flanders,
Or upon any field of experiencewhere pain makes patterns the poet slanders.


She is a strange poet, but one of my favourites.

[tailor STATELY]

Interesting poet and writer I hadn't come across yet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Smith


... two of the male characters in her last book are different aspects of George Orwell, who was close to Smith.


Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY