Rememberance Day - Wilfred Owen

 

Wilfred Owen

ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH

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What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? 

Only the monstrous anger of the guns. 

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle 

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; 

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; 

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all? 

Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes 

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. 

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; 

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, 

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

While attending Mount Allison University from 2009 - 2012, one of the very best things I did, was  to take a English Literature course from Professor Emeritus, Michael Thorpe.

 I was never a huge poetry reader as I hadn't been exposed to a lot of it in school growing up. But after I enrolling in this class, and from that time forward, I changed my perspective toward poetry and about war. 

The language of poetry helps us to understand the human condition, as it is a living thing and can change our lives.

Thanks to  Professor Thorpe, I developed a deeper understanding of war, the suffering it brings, and it disturbed me more profoundly trying to comprehend why we are such a warring species. The above poem by famous war poet Wilfred Owen especially, touched me deeply. 

This Remembrance Day, I pray for peace in the world, and for all the those in service, and victims of war, past and present, and for all of their families.

Woman of War - Catherine Meyers