Passing Out Parade At Glencorse
Jun. 20th, 2010 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo
PASSING OUT PARADE AT GLENCORSE
37 men plus marching band
Look pretty small on that vast parade ground.
Using a telephoto lens
I try to reach out and get to them
But ritual puts up plate-glass shields
I cannot pass. My son looks pale,
With shadows pooling under the cheek-bones.
Later he says he had his cap
Jammed on too tight and it stopped the blood flow.
Twit..
The full dress uniform
Has scarcely changed since the First World War.
The Scots wear kilts or tartan trews
And bonnets, while the Lancashires
Have a hat band red as a red, red rose
Which signifies loyalty to the Queen,
Their Duke. Their Dux.
Some officers
Stroll through the ranks and talk to them
My son is smiling.
Presenting arms
Is the greatest compliment they can give
(Or so says an arrogant voice on the tannoy)
And when they do it (but not to us)
We rise from our seats and stand for them.
Then off they go at a stiff clip
Back to their barracks to grow back into
Their private selves before they’re loosed
To us relatives. As they pass from view
The bandsmen of the Black Watch,
Their sashes streaming like widows’ wear,
Play "Scotland the Brave".
It’s Catterick next
Then Canada, then South Armagh.
Driving him home, its mostly hills
From Edinburgh to Lancaster.
Smooth bare hills and very few people,
Everything dun and grey except
At St Mary’s Loch where the ranked waves glitter.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 06:14 pm (UTC)I love the first and last verses.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 06:21 pm (UTC)No, he came through intact- and was given an honourable discharge for medical reasons.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 06:29 pm (UTC)Have you read "Goodbye to All That" - Graves talks a lot about his regimental colours there. As well as seeing everyone around him getting murdered by the war machine.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 06:44 pm (UTC)I'm a big admirer of Graves's poetry.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 06:41 pm (UTC)At St Mary’s Loch where the ranked waves glitter.
Thank you for sharing this.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 06:46 pm (UTC)Brilliant.
Date: 2010-06-20 08:53 pm (UTC)Re: Brilliant.
Date: 2010-06-20 09:20 pm (UTC)I've joined.
And welcome you are.
Date: 2010-06-20 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 06:45 pm (UTC)300. The magic number, as far as the Spartans (and I suppose the Thebans, and the Boetians) were concerned. I hope your son made it back okay - one of my father's students was a Shi-ite Muslim from Basra, and during the run-up to the 1st invasion of Iraq, he wasn't sure if his parents were alive or dead after Saddam's atrocities...
It's a sobering thought.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-22 07:48 am (UTC)I see Cameron was talking over the weekend about how we're paying too high a price and need to be looking to get out.
My son did his tour of duty and got out alive- but the experience soured him on the army- and he got himself discharged shortly afterwards.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-22 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-22 01:02 am (UTC)Don't let us get old
Don't let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight
The sky was on fire
When I walked to the mill
To take up the slack in the line
I thought of my friends
And the troubles they've had
To keep me from thinking of mine.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-22 07:52 am (UTC)