Last Post
Carol Ann Duffy * Track #4 On The Bees
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Last Post by Carol Ann Duffy
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Carol Ann DuffyAbout
In 2009 Carol Ann Duffy wrote Last Post which was commissioned by the BBC. The poem was written in remembrance of Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, “two out of three of the remaining British veteran WWI survivors”, who died in July 2009 at the ages of 113 and 111.
The poem was read out on July 30, 2...
Last Post Annotated
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If poetry could tell it backwards, true, begin
that moment shrapnel scythed you to the stinking mud ...
but you get up, amazed, watch bled bad blood
run upwards from the slime into its wounds;
see lines and lines of British boys rewind
back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home -
mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers
not entering the story now
to die and die and die.
Dulce - No - Decorum - No - Pro patria mori.
You walk away.
You walk away; drop your gun (fixed bayonet)
like all your mates do too -
Harry, Tommy, Wilfred, Edward, Bert -
and light a cigarette.
There's coffee in the square,
warm French bread
and all those thousands dead
are shaking dried mud from their hair
and queuing up for home. Freshly alive,
a lad plays Tipperary to the crowd, released
from History; the glistening, healthy horses fit for heroes, kings.
You lean against a wall,
your several million lives still possible
and crammed with love, work, children, talent, English beer, good food.
You see the poet tuck away his pocket-book and smile.
If poetry could truly tell it backwards,
then it would.
Last Post Q&A
Who wrote Last Post's ?
Last Post was written by Carol Ann Duffy.
When did Carol Ann Duffy release Last Post?
Carol Ann Duffy released Last Post on Thu Jul 30 2009.