"So when I’m killed, don’t mourn for me,
Shot, poor lad, so bold and young,
Killed and gone—don’t mourn for me.
On your lips my life is hung:
O friends and lovers, you can save
Your playfellow from the grave."
ROBERT GRAVES
Fairies and Fusiliers 1918
amen, simon, amen.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I wrote a Remembrance Day post last night and then woke up and decided to go to the big ceremony in Toronto for the first time. It was moving beyond words. These men....well, you know. I'm sorry that I was too apathetic/"busy"/hungover etc. to have ever gone before.
ReplyDeleteThese men came home from war and never even spoke about the unspeakable things they had seen and done. They were proud to have done a job that needed doing, and personally lived with the consequences. No PTSD groups, no nothing. It was a different generation. It reminds me of a line from The Illiad that has often got me through really bad times:
" I am a soldier, saith my heart,
and I have seen worse sights than this."
Homer, Illiad, Book XVI
I just listened to the podcast suggested by Anon:
ReplyDelete"For your tomorrow, we did our today."