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Laureate's first poem is Last Post to bring dead home
Terry Kirby30 Jul 2009
Carol Ann Duffy has honoured the dead of the First World War in her first published work as Poet Laureate.
She uses Wilfred Owen's Dulce Et Decorum Est as the inspiration for a work called Last Post, which imagines time being reversed so the dead of the war live again.
The poem was in part created with the Afghanistan conflict in mind and also in honour of the war poets, who include Owen, Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon.
"These poets who were also soldiers did not glorify war but responded to it," Duffy said.
"Whether we are women or men, soldiers or non-soldiers, we should all contribute a voice to the tragedy that is war. I have been thinking about Afghanistan and trying to enthuse new war poetry."
Last Post envisages the dead of the trenches rising, shaking the mud from themselves and queuing up to return home.
It twists Owen's line dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, which translates loosely as "it is glorious and fitting to die for one's country", to say the opposite: "Dulce - No - Decorum - No - Pro patria mori."
Reader views (2)
Lone foot solider
How many days must I fight this war,how many battles must I score.
Day by day the enemy we floor.
Why must I fight this awful war,the battle plan same as tomorrow killing and ransacking causing sorrow,murder and manslaughter committed each day.
But I'm not guilty of the slay,I try to keep my head down low,I try to make my feelings show.
Hiding and cowering in a corner,to make my world feel so much warmer.
Now I'm sitting all alone,all I want is to go home.
I turned around and walked away stepping over bodies on my way,heading for were I did not know,but today my feelings I did show.
Now at home the prison walls stare.
I'm called a deserter but do I care.
William Hickey Copyright ©2009
- William Hickey, Southend On Sea, 02/08/2009 09:20
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I heard this Poem on BBC Radio 4 this morning. Very moving! If only we could wind history back and remove the horrors of war. If our soldiers could spring from the blood sodden battlefields and go on to live great lives, the last post would bring tears of pride, not pain and loss.
- Maria, London, 30/07/2009 13:57
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