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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TRENCH NOMENCLATURE, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Genius named them, as I live! What but genius could compress Last Line: From the fabled vase the genie in his shattering horror came. Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund Subject(s): World War I; First World War | |||
GENIUS named them, as I live! What but genius could compress In a title what man's humour said to man's supreme distress? Jacob's Ladder ran reversed, from earth to a fiery pit extending, With not angels but poor Angles, those for the most part descending. Thence Brock's Benefit commanded endless fireworks by two nations, Yet some voices there were raised against the rival coruscations. Picturedome peeped out upon a dream, not Turner could surpass, And presently the picture moved, and greyed with corpses and morass. So down south; and if remembrance travel north, she marvels yet At the sharp Shakespearean names, and with sad mirth her eyes are wet. The Great Wall of China rose, a four-foot breastwork, fronting guns That, when the word dropped, beat at once its silly ounces with brute tons; Odd Krab Krawl on paper looks, and odd the foul-breathed alley twisted, As one feared to twist there too, if Minnie, forward quean, insisted. Where the Yser at Dead End floated on its bloody waters Dead and rotten monstrous fish, note (east) The Pike and Eel headquarters. Ah, such names and apparitions! name on name! what's in a name? From the fabled vase the genie in his shattering horror came. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...D'ANNUNZIO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY 1915: THE TRENCHES by CONRAD AIKEN TO OUR PRESIDENT by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE HORSES by KATHARINE LEE BATES CHILDREN OF THE WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE U-BOAT CREWS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE RED CROSS NURSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES WAR PROFITS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN ALMSWOMEN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |
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