Remembrance

As this week has rightly been devoted to remembrance of those killed in conflict, perhaps a fitting way to end it is with a typically subtle & moving poem by Thomas Hardy which sees from a perspective outside of time and yet is rooted in the very essence of humanity. The composition, though in inspiration dating back to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, was written and published during the First World War.

In Time of 'the Breaking of Nations'

I
Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.

II
Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch-grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass.

III
Yonder a maid and her wight
Come whispering by:
War's annuals will cloud into night
Ere their story die.