They sucked us in;
King and country,
Christ Almighty
And the rest.
Patriotism,
Democracy,
Honor—
Words and phrases,
They either bitched or killed us.
Notes
In line 2 Hemmingway is referring to no specific king but is, in fact, using a rallying cry from the British Army which was used for centuries (allegedly).
For example at the start of a cavalry charge against the enemy an officer (often a nobleman) might yell "For King and Country" to encourage his soldiers to fight. This goes back to the days when the monarch took a more dominant part in ruling the country than HM Queen Elizabeth does now.
The other phrases are similar rallying cries which are meaningless echoes of past days and he is using them to illustrate all the stupid reasons people give for wars and in doing so is trying to denegrate war itself.
Jim S
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Hemingway is certainly the poet laureate of Journalists.
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war
war dont deserve more words!
brilliant! -
Surprisngly good. Hemingway must have been sober at the time. Oddly, this rather contradicts his usual gung-ho macho posturings.
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I believe this is Hemmingway's take on the propaganda used by Govt's to get soldiers to rally and fight for the politicians ideals. The pollies, of course, staying well out of the firing line. Nothing has changed since this poem was written, the propaganda machine is still working at full strength.
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Hemmingway has produced a short, scissor-sharp, piece of free verse with all the impact of gelignite. He prises open the reality cemented between those names commerated on memorial walls and says assertively that the Monarchy, God, and valour were drummed into men who became soldiers and soldiered on until they came undone, either by being lost emotionally or losing their lives physically, a contempory song by Frankie Goes to Hollywood titled War has this line " War, what's it good for, absolutely nothing" Hemmingway portrayed the futility of being a dead hero or a live target, a catch 22 situation when called upon to serve one's nation, in the era to which E.H. refers those that would not sign up, as conscientious objectors, faced being shot or imprisoned for cowardice, faced being ostracised by their community that had seen so many men go willingly, blindly, into battle. Though the King is refered to , which precludes wars engaged in for many decades since, it is possible to relate to this poem from a soldiers point of view whatever war, for all soldiers ultimately have these pressures.
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Hemmingway really had a way with words. I enjoyed his novels more than his poetry. I have no ideas on this poem. Probably written as he drank.
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Distilled Hemingway.
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I'm afraid I had no idea Hemingway wrote any poetry. His sentiment doesn't surprise me considering his view on war in his novels.It's interesting how he uses rhythm here, and how he gets so much power
in that last phrase. -
how poignantly true in today's supposedly short incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan
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the entire country got sucked into the maw of a terrorist screams, and in seeking to silence it, lost far too many of the young boys of tomorrow, blown into oblivion. A bush war in the desert, meant to remove one murderer, but instead creating many more. Peace to you and yours Ernestly. -
god I don't think I've ever read this.. But it hits home so much to me right now.
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ooh, my favorite by EH.... just his own personal explosion...
I wonder how long he held this in before letting it out...
wow,,, stunning,
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Um...
I don't think that was very good.. -
Short & Pithy
just not that funny. -
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I don't think it's necessarily supposed to be funny.
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So much bitterness!
This beautiful piece embodies what I think of as a classic hemingway feeling.
Look at his use of the period in line 4, comma in 6, em-dash in 7, Such a masterful use of punctuation, bordering on too much, but really fitting with this poem, which in a way, is all about hesitation. -
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I see no hesitation there, Kevin. Hemingway is unhesitantly telling it like it is...
Brazos
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simple but true
So simple but so true the truth of war sumed up so quickly
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