September 1, 2008

Oh the tragedy of WWI

My writer crush big time, the WWI poet Wilfred Owen. Can't remember when it first all happened, sometime in high school but grew massively when I took the WWI literature class at BYU. Part of my intense hatred for WWI comes a lot from the fact that it killed this man.

The Parable of the Young Man and the Old


So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned, both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake, and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets the trenches there,
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

oh--SUCH a good crush!

Amanda said...

Thelma! I have a crush on Wilfred, too! And so does my good friend Katherine! Did you have Dr. Tate as y our professor? We took his WWI class while we were in London and we both fell in love with the man. And you chose a great poem. Man alive. If only that man were alive.