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READ THIS
The poet asks why it is that soldiers give their lives during war while fighting for some cherished ideal and
yet, once the war is over, the insane continue to rule us and drive us inevitably towards yet another war.
ABOUT THE POET
Cecil Day-Lewis was of Irish descent, having been born in Ballintubbert in County Laois, the son of a
clergyman and his wife.
He was just two years old, however, when his mother died, at which point his father moved to London
where the young child did all his schooling. He eventually graduated from Oxford University in 1927.
Despite this prolonged English education, he always regarded himself as Anglo-Irish although, when
Ireland eventually gained independence from Britain, he chose British citizenship rather than Irish.
He began work as a school teacher, then later became involved in the publishing industry before
eventually taking up a lecturing post at Cambridge University. Later he accepted a Professorship in Poetry
at Oxford before transferring to Harvard University in the United States.
For a while - just before the outbreak of World War II - he joined the communist party, during which time
his poetry took on a distinctly socialist flavour. Disillusion soon set in, however, and he quickly parted
company with the socialists.
Day-Lewis had a troubled marital life, being married first to Mary King and then to Jill Balcon. These two
marriages resulted in five children. He also had several extra-marital affairs during which he probably
fathered a further two children.
He was appointed Poet Laureate of Britain in 1968 but died from pancreatic cancer just four years later.
He was then 68 years of age.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"Will it be so again -
the jungle code and the hypocrite gesture?"
- What is meant by "the jungle code"? (2)
[Need help?]
The "law of the jungle" is chaos and brutality.
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- What is "the hypocrite gesture"? (4)
[Need help?]
When men greet each other, they shake hands. This is supposedly a sign of peace because, when
shaking hands, a man cannot at the same time draw his sword and kill the other person.
The poet, however, says that the reality of our political leaders is precisely that they shake hands while
at the same time they stab each other. They speak peace but prepare for war. They are all therefore
hypocrites who say one thing while meaning another.
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"A poppy wreath for the slain
and a cut-throat world for the living? That stale imposture
played on us once again."
- What is the purpose of the "poppy wreath"? (4)
[Need help?]
The poppy wreath is the symbol of those soldiers who have died during war. In Europe, the red poppy
grows wild and its seeds are blown by the wind. Poppy seeds therefore were disseminated across the
areas which had been destroyed during the early years of World War I so that, already by 1915, red
poppies were growing all over the graves of the soldiers in their trenches. The poppies therefore became
synonymous with the dead soldiers.
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- Comment on the poet's sarcastic comparison of the dead and the living. (4)
[Need help?]
For the soldiers who died fighting for justice and peace, there is just a poppy wreath. For the living, on
the other hand, there is the cut-throat world of dishonesty and wheeling-and-dealing. The world fought
for by the slain is therefore wasted on the living.
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- Why does the poet speak of "that stale imposture played on us once again"? (4)
[Need help?]
An "imposture" is defined as "pretending to be someone else in order to deceive others". This is what
happens repeatedly in our world, says the poet. In fact, it happens so often that it is now "stale".
Nevertheless, it happens once again after every war, and this in turn leads to the next war.
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"peace, with no heart or mind to ensue it,
guttering down to war
like a libertine to his grave."
- What is a "libertine" and why does he go to his grave? (4)
[Need help?]
A "libertine" is defined as "one devoid of most moral restraints". He does whatever he wishes and is
therefore most noted for his drunkenness which will ultimately lead him to his grave.
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- Why does the poet speak of "peace, with no heart or mind to ensue it"? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet appears to be hinting at the fact that "peace in our world" is an empty slogan. The politicians
do not pursue peace. They are desirous only of bullying other nations until eventually war once again
happens. The soldiers are then enlisted to sacrifice their lives once more, but the politicians at home are
already by then pursuing yet another war.
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"The living alone can nail their promise to the ones who said
it shall not be so again."
- Who are the "ones who said it shall not be so again"? What has happened to
them? (4)
[Need help?]
It is the soldiers who said "it shall not happen again". They have taken up arms to ensure that this will be
so, and they have mostly died fighting for this principle.
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- What does the poet mean when he says that "the living alone can nail [this]
promise"? (4)
[Need help?]
The dead cannot ensure lasting peace. Only the living can do that. The living therefore must be the ones
who will ensure peace but they must do so through living for peace and not advancing war.
"Fighting for peace" is a contradiction in terms. One must live for peace.
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The poet has used the word "again" no less than six times. Is there any reason for his doing so? (4)
[Need help?]
Poetry is a work of art, a careful selection of words to reveal a meaning. A good poet does nothing by
accident. One can presume therefore that this repetition of the word "again" is deliberate.
Repetition is designed to bring home a particular message. In this case, the poet is wishing us to note
that warfare happens again and again, and again and again.
Why then do soldiers continue to sacrifice their lives when they know that ultimately it will be in vain? They
believe they are fighting for peace but in reality they are fighting to ensure that the politicians can continue
to pursue their dirty, cut-throat business which will lead to yet another war.
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