Poems That Make Grown Men Cry by Anthony and Ben Holden Page B
Authors: Anthony and Ben Holden
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Notting Hill
(1999)
, Mansfield Park
(1999)
, Iris
(2001) and
The Monuments Men
(2014).
During Wind and Rain
THOMAS HARDY (1840–1928)
KEN FOLLETT
I read this as a schoolboy, and even then I was overwhelmed by its melancholy. Half a century of rereading has shown me how clever it is. The rhyming scheme – ABCBCDA
– and the stanza form are unique, as far as I know. In each verse, the first five lines swing like a pop song, showing us a familyengaged in a merry project: singing, gardening, picnicking.
Moving house is vividly evoked with the simple image of clocks on the lawn. But every stanza is a sucker punch. In the last two lines of each the rhythm falters, and decay and death are evoked
until the end, when we realise that the poet is standing in a rain-wet graveyard, looking at the tombstones, and everyone in that happy familyis now dead.
During Wind and Rain
They sing their dearest songs –
He, she, all of them – yea,
Treble and tenor and bass,
And one to play;
With the candles mooning each face. . . .
Ah, no; the years O!
How the sick leaves reel down in throngs!
They clear the creeping moss –
Elders and juniors – aye,
Making the pathways neat
And the garden gay;
And they build a shady seat. . . .
Ah, no; the years, the years;
See, the white storm-birds wing across!
They are blithely breakfasting all –
Men and maidens – yea,
Under the summer tree,
Witha glimpse of the bay,
While pet fowl come to the knee. . . .
Ah, no; the years O!
And the rotten rose is ript from the wall.
They change to a high new house,
He, she, all of them – aye,
Clocks and carpets and chairs
On the lawn all day,
And brightest things that are theirs. . . .
Ah, no; the years, the years;
Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs.
(1917)
The Welsh-born novelist Ken Follett (b. 1949) has sold more than 130 million books worldwide. His first bestseller was
Eye of the Needle
(1978), a spy story set during
the Second World War. In 1989
The Pillars of the Earth
markeda radical change; a novel about building acathedral in the Middle Ages, it has sold more than nineteen
million copies in many languages. His latest project is the Century trilogy, three historical novels telling the story of the twentieth century through the eyes of five families:
Fall of
Giants
(2010),
Winter of the World
(2012) and
Edge of Eternity
(2014).
Dulce et Decorum Est
WILFRED OWEN (1893–1918)
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Christopher Hitchens was one of the first to contribute to this anthology, in an e-mail just five days before his death in December 2011.
In the foreword to his 2000 volume of literary criticism,
Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere
, Hitchens writes: ‘Most of Owen’spoetry was written or
“finished” in the twelve months before his life was thrown away in a futile action on the Sambre-Meuse canal, and he only published four poems in his lifetime . . . But he has
conclusively outlived all the jingo versifiers, blood-bolted Liberal politicians, garlanded generals and other supposed legislators of the period. He is the most powerful single rebuttal ofAuden’s mild and sane claim that “Poetry makes nothing happen”.’
Dulce et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
Butlimped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my
Notting Hill
(1999)
, Mansfield Park
(1999)
, Iris
(2001) and
The Monuments Men
(2014).
During Wind and Rain
THOMAS HARDY (1840–1928)
KEN FOLLETT
I read this as a schoolboy, and even then I was overwhelmed by its melancholy. Half a century of rereading has shown me how clever it is. The rhyming scheme – ABCBCDA
– and the stanza form are unique, as far as I know. In each verse, the first five lines swing like a pop song, showing us a familyengaged in a merry project: singing, gardening, picnicking.
Moving house is vividly evoked with the simple image of clocks on the lawn. But every stanza is a sucker punch. In the last two lines of each the rhythm falters, and decay and death are evoked
until the end, when we realise that the poet is standing in a rain-wet graveyard, looking at the tombstones, and everyone in that happy familyis now dead.
During Wind and Rain
They sing their dearest songs –
He, she, all of them – yea,
Treble and tenor and bass,
And one to play;
With the candles mooning each face. . . .
Ah, no; the years O!
How the sick leaves reel down in throngs!
They clear the creeping moss –
Elders and juniors – aye,
Making the pathways neat
And the garden gay;
And they build a shady seat. . . .
Ah, no; the years, the years;
See, the white storm-birds wing across!
They are blithely breakfasting all –
Men and maidens – yea,
Under the summer tree,
Witha glimpse of the bay,
While pet fowl come to the knee. . . .
Ah, no; the years O!
And the rotten rose is ript from the wall.
They change to a high new house,
He, she, all of them – aye,
Clocks and carpets and chairs
On the lawn all day,
And brightest things that are theirs. . . .
Ah, no; the years, the years;
Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs.
(1917)
The Welsh-born novelist Ken Follett (b. 1949) has sold more than 130 million books worldwide. His first bestseller was
Eye of the Needle
(1978), a spy story set during
the Second World War. In 1989
The Pillars of the Earth
markeda radical change; a novel about building acathedral in the Middle Ages, it has sold more than nineteen
million copies in many languages. His latest project is the Century trilogy, three historical novels telling the story of the twentieth century through the eyes of five families:
Fall of
Giants
(2010),
Winter of the World
(2012) and
Edge of Eternity
(2014).
Dulce et Decorum Est
WILFRED OWEN (1893–1918)
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Christopher Hitchens was one of the first to contribute to this anthology, in an e-mail just five days before his death in December 2011.
In the foreword to his 2000 volume of literary criticism,
Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere
, Hitchens writes: ‘Most of Owen’spoetry was written or
“finished” in the twelve months before his life was thrown away in a futile action on the Sambre-Meuse canal, and he only published four poems in his lifetime . . . But he has
conclusively outlived all the jingo versifiers, blood-bolted Liberal politicians, garlanded generals and other supposed legislators of the period. He is the most powerful single rebuttal ofAuden’s mild and sane claim that “Poetry makes nothing happen”.’
Dulce et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
Butlimped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my
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