tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post2758509936166356884..comments2024-01-02T15:12:14.699+00:00Comments on War Poetry: Robert Service: 'Only a Boche'Tim Kendallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17917270014209480898noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post-30572071857599261222010-09-07T22:42:15.687+01:002010-09-07T22:42:15.687+01:00To regard the enemy soldier as a chap like oneself...To regard the enemy soldier as a chap like oneself may be "the sentimental response" today -and even in 1929, when Wyeth published his sonnet. But as I see it, the "sentimental" response in 1914-18 (in spite of Hardy's "Man He Killed") would have been to revile the individual Hun as the savager of the Belgians and crucifier of the Canadians. <br /><br />By 1916, when Service's collection appeared, the crucifixion stories of 1915 were widely accepted as typical Teutonic Schrecklichkeit. For a popular Canadian writer to ignore it in a two-fisted poem like this about the nature of the odrinary Fritz strikes me as less sentimental than it is level-headed.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01235681683867806997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post-25580998204996136772010-09-07T01:01:00.039+01:002010-09-07T01:01:00.039+01:00In Service, Out of Service, At Your Service... too...In Service, Out of Service, At Your Service... too easy to Dis Service when modern poetry standards are applied to his jingle-jangle jingoist rhymes. Seattle (where I owned a bookstore for a decade) having settled-in so near Canada and as a result being treated for a century as the gateway to the Far North, I sold many a copy of his Yukon gold rush poems, to Yanks and Canucks alike--the War poems less frequently. Your pinpoint analysis and wide-ranging links are exemplary, Tim, and I do grudgingly admire one Serviceable line in this poem: "For his going opens a tragic door that gives on a world of pain." But the burst of French at the end just makes me say... Zut! Diable! et firmez le Boche.Ed Leimbacherhttp://www.mrebks.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post-68123394374974268952010-09-06T21:40:34.794+01:002010-09-06T21:40:34.794+01:00A curious aside: Whilst pondering other matters, I...A curious aside: Whilst pondering other matters, I stumbled recently upon the fact that the name Fritz apparently means 'Peace Ruler'. Rather ironic in the context of it being a nickname for the Germans in war-time, but it in a way it seems to embody the sometimes ambivalent attitude towards the enemy.Philip Lancasterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17457417552041307923noreply@blogger.com