Remembrance Day.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
4 Responses to “Lest we forget”
Eleanor Firman
This post glamourises the death of young males. We celebrate Nov 11th for the end of war. We do not commemorate the various dates of expanding enfranchisement – why not?
Only 60% of over 21 year old males could vote in 1914 through property qualifications.
18 year old soldiers were not allowed to fight abroad, only 19 and over. But they did and huge numbers of 18 year olds died.
Many thousands of boys under 18 also lied about their age, in a time of high unemployment and low entitlement to state funded education under 14.
To me it is indecent to celebrate a war where so few could vote for or against participating. And particularly indecent to romanticise the involvement of young men.
I look forward to Left Foot Forward publishing a less romantic piece, respecting the loss of so much young (and not so young) male life, taking into account the true basic socio- economic conditions which are, to be honest, not that difficult to find in the public domain.
Newsbot9
You can’t even let remembrance Sunday pass without carping and criticising I see. It’s not about the wars, it’s about the people.
dormouse
Surely that was her point
Guest
I read her post. Did you?