Poem to Harry Patch

[PhilB]

Did anyone hear this poem read by Motion on TV last night? Personally, I was underwhemled but perhaps I`m missing something?

The Five Acts of Harry Patch

'The Last Fighting Tommy'

by Andrew Motion

I.

A curve is a straight line caught bending

and this one runs under the kitchen window

where the bright eyes of your mum and dad

might flash any minute and find you down

on all fours, stomach hard to the ground,

slinking along a furrow between the potatoes

and dead set on a prospect of rich pickings,

the good apple trees and plum trees and pears,

anything sweet and juicy you might now be

able to nibble around the back and leave

hanging as though nothing were amiss,

if only it were possible to stand upright

in so much clear light and with those eyes

beady in the window and not catch a packet.

II.

Patch, Harry Patch, that's a good name,

Shakespearean, it might be one of Hal's men

at Agincourt or not far off, although in fact

it starts life and belongs in Combe Down

with your dad's trade in the canary limestone

which turns to grey and hardens when it meets

the light, perfect for Regency Bath and you too

since no one these days thinks about the danger

of playing in quarries when the workmen go,

not even of prodding and pelting with stones

the wasps' nests perched on rough ledges

or dropped from the ceiling on curious stalks

although god knows it means having to shift

tout suite and still get stung on arms and faces.

III.

First the hard facts of not wanting to fight,

and the kindness of deciding to shoot men

in the legs but no higher unless needs must,

and the liking among comrades which is truly

deep and wide as love without that particular name,

then Pilckem Ridge and Langemarck and across

the Steenbeek since none of the above can change

what comes next, which is a lad from A Company

shrapnel has ripped open from shoulder to waist

who tells you "Shoot me", but is good as dead

already, and whose final word is "Mother",

which you hear because you kneel to hold

one finger of his hand, and then remember orders

to keep pressing on, support the infantry ahead.

IV.

After the big crowd to unveil the memorial

and no puff left in the lungs to sing O valiant hearts

or say aloud the names of friends and one cousin,

the butcher and chimney sweep, a farmer, a carpenter,

work comes up the Wills Tower in Bristol and there

thunderstorms are a danger, so bad that lightning

one day hammers Great George and knocks down

the foreman who can't use his hand three weeks

later as you recall, along with the way that strike

burned all trace of oxygen from the air, it must have,

given the definite stink of sulphur and a second

or two later the gusty flap of a breeze returning

along with rooftops below, and moss, and rain

fading over the green Mendip Hills and blue Severn.

V.

You grow a moustache, check the mirror, notice

you're forty years old, then next day shave it off,

check the mirror again - and see you're seventy,

but life is like that now, suddenly and gradually

everyone you know dies and still comes to visit

or you head back to them, it's not clear which

only where it happens: a safe bedroom upstairs

by the look of things, although when you sit late

whispering with the other boys in the Lewis team,

smoking your pipe upside-down to hide the fire,

and the nurses on night duty bring folded sheets

to store in the linen cupboard opposite, all it takes

is someone switching on the light - there is that flash,

or was until you said, and the staff blacked the window.

[Jim Clay]

Didn't hear it read, Phil, though I've just read it through - and ta for posting it. Dunno if you're missing anything but I like it. Poetry buffs may not agree; but, for me, it does what it says on the tin; five acts of Harry Patch. He has become an icon of his age in recent years, and I can hear Harry speaking his memories in Motion's words.

[PPCLI]

QUOTE (Phil_B @ Nov 4 2008, 01:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

.... perhaps I`m missing something?

What were you hoping to find? Thank you for putting the full version in your post for us all to read. I like it a whole lot more than a lot of the contemporary WW1 poetry.

Stuart

[amelialongcroft]

I watched the programme last night and found the reading very moving indeed. Thanks for posting the poem.

[PhilB]

What were you hoping to find? Stuart

I dunno. I sat there waiting to be impressed - perhaps not the way to do it. I must say, it sounded better when I read it myself, probably because Motion`s dull monotone style of delivery didn`t bring it to life for me. And I kept looking for the rhymes. PhilB (GCE O Level English)

[zippy.72]

QUOTE (Phil_B @ Nov 4 2008, 04:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I dunno. I sat there waiting to be impressed - perhaps not the way to do it. I must say, it sounded better when I read it myself, probably because Motion`s dull monotone style of delivery didn`t bring it to life for me. And I kept looking for the rhymes. PhilB (GCE O Level English)

Considering he is the poet laureate, I too was underwhelmed by the content. I was glad that Harry enjoyed it. Having said that, I couldn't do any better myself, so I will shut up!!

[J Banning]

I was at the recital and can say how much everyone was moved by the poem. I felt that most people were pleasantly surprised by how much they enjoyed it and can certainly say that Harry really did enjoy it. None of that delight was put on for the cameras – it was genuine pleasure that the Poet Laureate had written a poem about his life.

I was actually very impressed with Andrew Motion and did not find his voice monotone at all – rather, it was soothing and reflective.

[PhilB]

I`ve noticed that critics don`t have to actually be any good themselves at what they criticize. If they were, they probably would be practitioners, not critics!

[amelialongcroft]

I was at the recital and can say how much everyone was moved by the poem. I felt that most people were pleasantly surprised by how much they enjoyed it and can certainly say that Harry really did enjoy it. None of that delight was put on for the cameras – it was genuine pleasure that the Poet Laureate had written a poem about his life.

I was actually very impressed with Andrew Motion and did not find his voice monotone at all – rather, it was soothing and reflective.

How marvellous to have been there!

I too felt that Motion's reading (and the poem itself) was understated, which made it all the more touching.

[Doug Lewis]

I too was underwhelmed but I'm glad that Harry enjoyed the poem,which is the main thing.

Regards Doug

[marina]

I love it. harry's life is in there and it capturwes the sweep of time in a very long wel effectivley. I also liked the boy pranks for rich pickings and how they are parallel to future trench life.

brilliant stuff.

Marina

[amelialongcroft]

I love it. harry's life is in there and it capturwes the sweep of time in a very long wel effectivley. I also liked the boy pranks for rich pickings and how they are parallel to future trench life.

brilliant stuff.

Marina

The insight into Motion's approach towards the writing of the poem was fascinating: he didn't just read the autobiography and make something up from that, but tried to capture the man's character in the very tone of the poem. Harry Patch doesn't seem like the sort of chap to shout about himself or his experiences, and this was reflected in a lovely way by the understated quality of the poem itself and the use of Harry's own words, which are far more beautiful and powerful than any amount of hi-falutin' poetic language. In my opinion!

[Jim Clay]

The insight into Motion's approach towards the writing of the poem was fascinating: he didn't just read the autobiography and make something up from that, but tried to capture the man's character in the very tone of the poem. Harry Patch doesn't seem like the sort of chap to shout about himself or his experiences, and this was reflected in a lovely way by the understated quality of the poem itself and the use of Harry's own words, which are far more beautiful and powerful than any amount of hi-falutin' poetic language. In my opinion!

That's pretty much what I got from the poem. And as I said above, I could 'hear' Harry in the words.

[marina]

Here's a link to an article by Motion describng a visit to Harry Patch and how the poem came about.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/nov/0...ry-andrewmotion

Great stuff!

Marina

[Guest GrahamW]

I too was very disappointed with the poem from our Poet Laureate when I first saw it earlier this year. It is very hard to read, even out loud. On Harry's 110th birthday in June I sent him (Harry) a poem of my own, written deliberately in simple rhyming couplet format as a contrast to Andrew's style. I repeat it below in case it is of interest to anyone although you do have to know about his life for it to make much sense.

THE OLDEST SOLDIER by Graham Woodall

Oh, Harry Patch, how have you lived so long

yet still maintained your sense of right and wrong?

A Victorian, born in Somerset,

your Edwardian childhood did not let

you forget or regret those pre-war years

when nests of wasps were the greatest of fears.

Potassium cyanide gassed them dead,

how could you see then where you would be led?

Tunnels from the quarry under your land

could not make it sink nor crumble like sand.

Although never yellow, like local stone,

you harden and turn grey but never moan.

A working lad were you when icebergs struck

a White Star liner that ran out of luck.

You also saw the Pankhursts chase the vote

for women, and for men of little note.

And so to war you never saw as yours

but called up to support your Country’s cause.

Your lance-jack stripe was taken easily

but then for matters disciplinary

you lost it and your upper arm was bare

of decoration, but you didn’t care.

The Duke of Cornwall’s infantry so light

could never make you really want to fight.

The crossed guns badge you won put up your pay,

by sixpence more than the shilling per day.

You joined a Lewis team as number two

to clear the deadly pipework for your crew.

And you caught a packet – a Blighty one

of gut-tearing shrapnel sent by the Hun.

The Midlands first then Vectis, green and white,

saw you get well but not again to fight.

The war was over and you had a wife

so, Harry Patch, you led a normal life.

With peaceful pipework a living you earned

and sheets of five pound lead you teased and turned.

Two coppers bright you placed within a door

beneath the Great George bell on the top floor

of the Wills Tower in Bristol. Lightning struck

but missed you by another stroke - of luck.

In nineteen twenty you became a dad

and, four years later, sired another lad.

Your sons grew up and saw war of their own

in which you served again, but you had grown

too old to fight, except against the fires

caused by those German bombs on English Shires.

And now, at last, you have great age and fame,

when ‘England’s Final Tommy’ is your name.

[PhilB]

Well done!