[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

I thought it might be illuminating to compare and contrast the poems on the two sites as poetry aside from the nature of their content.

Poets for the War seems to have a reasonable collection of poetry. I paged into the first one on the list: "A Lesser Evil: My Message to George Bush" by Glenn Coleman.

http://www.poetsforthewar.org/poems/glennc02.shtml

A Lesser Evil: My Message to George Bush
We all hate war, like Eleanor,
And Franklin’s small dog Fala.
But what is more, we all abhor,
It's call invoked by Allah.

A madman’s dream can hardly seem
A vision of God’s voice.
Yet nations wait and let their fate
Unfold by Saddam’s choice.

“Of thee I sing...Let freedom ring”
I’ll shout if you reply,
With all the might that’s fit and right,
To silence this great lie.

This human shield will gladly yield,
To consequence of guns,
If lesser evil is the deal,
For freedom’s future sons.

© copyright 1990 Glenn Coleman. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

As a Central Floridian, who isn’t so much a poet, but does support my country’s current, and previous position vis a vis Saddam Hussein, I still feel as I did in November of 1990 when I wrote “A Lesser Evil” (Incidentally that message was smuggled out and delivered to President George Bush, Sr. before the war started in January 1991).

Upon reading it, I was immediately struck by the meter, which is the same one I used in my (mock-Right-wing) poem

"By Jingo!" over at the Deep End.

I'll reproduce it here for purpose of contrast:

<cite>By Jingo!

By Jingo! By Jingo! I want to cry “Bingo!”
The buzzwords are flying like hornets unbound,
All anger and venom, as fast as you pen ’em,
Aflutter like pennants, no sense but much sound.
All voices of reason evoke cries of “Treason!”
Or “Aiding the Enemy” (not yet declared).
Such cries of “Sedition” recall Inquisition
And autos-da-fé with no heretic spared.
I’m “Unpatriotic”? I think they’re neurotic
(Or scoundrels, as per Dr. Johnson and Bierce).
Name-calling’s for babies, you war-dogs (with rabies),
All barking and frothing to prove you are fierce.
--Kevin Andrew Murphy</cite>

I find it interesting that a meter that to me resounded with 19th century jingoism is reproduced in the very first of the "Poems for the War."

Does anyone know the history of this meter? It's use in war-songs, sloganeering, suchlike?

[ginger]

Kevin,

Your poem sounds to me like Dr. Seuss's anapestic tetrameter. Coleman's, on the other hand, sounds like iambic tet. Am I missing something? (It's entirely likely since metrics are still fairly new to me.)

Ginger

[Julie Steiner]

Setting a military theme to a duple foot while using internal rhyme in the odd-numbered lines is definitely a nod to Rudyard Kipling--even if the meter is not an exact match with Kipling's.

From Kipling's In the Neolithic Age
In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage
For food and fame and two-toed horses' pelt;
I was singer to my clan in that dim, red Dawn of Man,
And I sang of all we fought and feared and felt.

You'll see a similar dynamic at work in Gunga Din, despite the line break:

From Gunga Din
You may talk o' gin and beer
When you're quartered safe out 'ere,
An' you're sent to penny-fights and Aldershot it;
But when it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water,
An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it.

The following lines start one of several Kipling pieces entitled L'Envoi--this one with the notation "(TO BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS)," which I assume means that it could be sung to the tune of one or more well-known army songs:

There's a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield,
And the ricks stand grey to the sun,
Singing:--'Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover,
And your English summer's done.'

But the even lines slow down considerably and lose the duple meter.

I'm afraid you're on your own if you care to track down the songs that inspired Kipling's use of this rhyme scheme and duple foot.

Julie Stoner, speaking with all the authority of her $1 Dover Thrift Edition of Kipling




[This message has been edited by Julie Stoner (edited March 17, 2003).]

[Richard Wakefield]

Kipling came to mind (or to ear) for me, too. I've always supposed that Kipling's forms in his more jingoistic poems echoed drinking ballads and barracks songs -- in fact, "Barrack-Room Ballads" was the title of his 1892 book. As a kid I used to recite "Gunga Din" in unison with my father, at the top of my lungs, and it's easy to imagine a crowd of drunken soldiers giving it the same treatment: "And it was Din! Din! Din! You squidgy faced old idol Gunga Din!"
RPW