Author Topic: Lest we forget  (Read 5941 times)

Poddy

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Lest we forget
« on: November 11, 2010, 09:04:15 AM »

moonlight

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Re: Lest we forget
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2010, 09:58:08 AM »


here here
If people need to know the truth then seek the answers. If I am so unpopular it is because I say it as it is

*CountessA*

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Re: Lest we forget
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2010, 11:56:56 AM »
"No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is ...a part of the maine; ...any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde"

*CountessA*

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Re: Lest we forget
« Reply #3 on: November 11, 2010, 12:06:48 PM »
Repression of War Experience - by Siegfried Sassoon

      Now light the candles; one; two; there's a moth;
      What silly beggars they are to blunder in
      And scorch their wings with glory, liquid flame --
      No, no, not that, -- it's bad to think of war,
      When thoughts you've gagged all day come back to scare you;
      And it's been proved that soldiers don't go mad
      Unless they lose control of ugly thoughts
      That drive them out to jabber among the trees.

      Now light your pipe; look, what a steady hand.
      Draw a deep breath; stop thinking; count fifteen
      And you're right as rain. . . .
                     Why won't it rain? . . .
      I wish there'd be a thunderstorm to-night,
      With bucketsful of water to sluice the dark,
      And make the roses hang their dripping heads.

      Books; what a jolly company they are,
      Standing so quiet and patient on their shelves,
      Dressed in dim brown, and black, and white, and green,
      And every kind of colour. Which will you read?
      Come on; O do read something; they're so wise.
      I tell you all the wisdom of the world
      Is waiting for you on those shelves; and yet
      You sit and gnaw your nails, and let your pipe out,
      And listen to the silence: on the ceiling
      There's one big, dizzy moth that bumps and flutters;
      And in the breathless air outside the house
      The garden waits for something that delays.
      There must be crowds of ghosts among the trees, --
      Not people killed in battle, -- they're in France, --
      But horrible shapes in shrouds -- old men who died
      Slow, natural deaths, -- old men with ugly souls,
      Who wore their bodies out with nasty sins.

               *     *     *     *

      You're quiet and peaceful, summering safe at home;
      You'd never think there was a bloody war on! . . .
      O yes, you would . . . why, you can hear the guns.
      Hark! Thud, thud, thud, -- quite soft . . . they never cease --
      Those whispering guns -- O Christ, I want to go out
      And screech at them to stop -- I'm going crazy;
      I'm going stark, staring mad because of the guns.



And the poem he wrote for Armistice Day... almost in disbelief that it could be over at last...

Everyone Sang - by Siegfried Sassoon

      Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
      And I was filled with such delight
      As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
      Winging wildly across the white
      Orchards and dark-green fields; on -- on -- and out of sight.

      Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted;
      And beauty came like the setting sun;
      My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
      Drifted away . . . O, but Everyone
      Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.
"No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is ...a part of the maine; ...any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde"

*CountessA*

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Re: Lest we forget
« Reply #4 on: November 11, 2010, 12:28:55 PM »
Remembrance Day ceremonies are being held across Australia to honour the sacrifices made by Australia's servicemen and women.

About 1500 people, most of them primary school children, have gathered at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance in beautiful sunshine to commemorate the end of the World War I.

Premier John Brumby and the Governor of Victoria, David de Kretser, are due to arrive shortly for the Remembrance Day ceremony.

Men and women dressed in World War I uniforms and wearing the iconic slouched hat are also among the audience, as well as members of the Australian light horsemen re-enactment troop from Creswick.

Just before 11am's (AEDT) one-minute silence, there will be a flyover by RAAF Museum aircraft.

In NSW, a Remembrance Day ceremony was held at Sydney's Martin Place cenotaph.

Governor-General Quentine Bryce was expected to make a commemorative address at Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
"No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is ...a part of the maine; ...any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde"

*Brum6y*

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Re: Lest we forget
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2010, 02:29:03 PM »
I sometimes wonder if those words 'Lest we forget' have, for some, become nothing more than part of the 'noise' of life, rolled out at specified intervals.

I wonder how many people realise it is actually a statement having quite definite meaning.... and more importantly, a solemn charge.  Whilst it is written in english, it translates into any language and any culture.

It is unfortunate that the further in time we travel away from the origins, the relevance and poignancy are less powerful. The memories become a greater part of the enduring remnants of those times, yet they fade with each generation.  The lessons learned pass into abstraction, to be taken in by only those avid historians who rifle through the dusty, freckled pages of books stacked casually at a garage sale.


I sought out the origin of the phrase, and found it the title of a poem.

I also found out a lttle about the author.

He was a father who had lost two sons in the 'Great War' - and I read it with the visions of my own sons.  Today I see them out with their mates, working on cars and cursing at the game console - with grins and laughter all around.

If this was 1914, they would have been called up for service.... and I could well have been given cause to pen the piece below.
The Great War Archive, University of Oxford


We must make the effort to remember, lest we forget.

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