tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post4439472733941886736..comments2024-01-02T15:12:14.699+00:00Comments on War Poetry: Charles Sorley: '"When you see millions of the mouthless dead"'Tim Kendallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17917270014209480898noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post-70398381423744010292012-01-01T16:40:03.933+00:002012-01-01T16:40:03.933+00:00I agree about the point that "spook" sug...I agree about the point that "spook" suggests something less dignified than "ghost" or "spirit" - but we might also remember that Sorley's family were Scots, where I fancy that the word "spook" is much more commonly used than in Standard English. (Compare, also, the passage in Kidnapped where Alan Breck asks Davy whether he is afraid of "bogles".) How resonant "spooks" and "bogles" are compared to mere "phantoms" or "spirits"!Meg Cranehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11308477492887861769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post-69758469389802077032011-11-04T22:08:20.070+00:002011-11-04T22:08:20.070+00:00Just found your blog, and I'm blown away! Thi...Just found your blog, and I'm blown away! This is great stuff, and I look forward to browsing about and seeing what I can find. As soon as I read the lines from Sorley's poem that you've quoted above, I could feel the influence of Homer upon the young fellow. Sorley is graphic and visceral, and absolutely carves out the primacy of Death on the battlefield.<br /><br />I need to look around, but have you looked at Christopher Logue's interpretations of significant portions of <i>The Iliad</i>. That man writes some of the most intense war poetry I've ever read, and I even think Homer would have approved. I'm glad to have found you! Cheers! ChrisChristopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00428150254760548485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post-20539864190240798272011-10-27T09:55:51.914+01:002011-10-27T09:55:51.914+01:00if I might, I imagine 'spook' as a taunt t...if I might, I imagine 'spook' as a taunt to the soldier who survives-the ultimate guilt/shame of any soldier who has lost comrades or worse, one's men.<br /><br />'It is easy to be dead.' I know many, many who believed this at some point in their war. I know someone who signed for every patrol he could, hoping to be killed. I know others who having lost men wished they had been killed instead. <br /><br />then too there is the soldier hierarchy (my words) expressed perhaps ironically, perhaps not, in his lines from 'All the Hills and Vales Along' <br /><br />'Earth.../Shall rejoice and blossom too/ When the bullet reaches you.' <br /><br />something of this all rings through in Brian Turner's 'Here Bullet' btw.<br /><br />plus ça change...smshttp://www.warpoet.canoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post-12386140899406949482011-10-13T19:20:44.134+01:002011-10-13T19:20:44.134+01:00You're absolutely right, Sheenagh. 'Spook&...You're absolutely right, Sheenagh. 'Spook' is the word which stands out (along with those straight out of Hardy like 'heretofore' and 'thereto'). I think that it would stand out just as much in 1915, Sorley's points being that this is no 'ghost' or 'spirit' but something absurd, outlandish, not entirely serious.Tim Kendallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17917270014209480898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2499661274163551793.post-61926016196425669852011-10-13T08:37:31.303+01:002011-10-13T08:37:31.303+01:00That word "spook" quite surprised me. To...That word "spook" quite surprised me. To our ears it sounds Halloweenish, even Disneyish; I wonder how it was used in his day.Sheenagh Pughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02735299981866333316noreply@blogger.com