Why do I remember you, dead soldier,
as today, seen from the autostrada,
the domes of Capua flash-back my memory
to 1944 and the Volturno?
Interred beneath a rough-made timber cross,
we found your grave beside the shattered remnants
of what had been Hannibal’s Bridge,
once gracefully stone-arched over the Volturno.
Ordered to replace the shattered stone bridge,
we planned to dump both steel and timber
on the roadside where you lay,
killed in the battle for the Volturno.
But we, dead soldier, perhaps strangely fearful
of waking you with the noise of our labours
or of desecrating your roadside grave,
had to move you away from the Volturno.
Now, years later, dead soldier,
re-interred beneath a white stone cross
which tells your number, rank and name,
and alongside your long dead mates,
I remember that you and they fought
to cross the Volturno.
26
Author notes
GUARDSMAN McGILLIVRAY
Killed in action in the battle for the Volturno
near Capua, Italy, late 1943.
A contest entry
- GIVE ME A WAR POEM by manoguru.
500 points, ended July 3, 2007, 14 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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Very sad
Yes to remember the ones who gave so much for us all they truly walk in the footsteps of the Lord
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perhaps the most impressive thing about this poem is the way it narrates a story without being over-eager to state a moral. in fact i don't find any moralizing tendency in this poem. i also don't see any demonizing tendency either. thus this poem is quite unique in this contest, in that it is neither expressedly pro-war or con-war. this poem is a cool headed, without any exaggerated emotions. battles happen and people die. that's that. the poem seems to accept the concept of war as a regular part of life, not just as a specific events of history.
indeed, the repetition of the river "Volturno" as the end word for every stanza gives it a significance that looms as more than a mere setting. it appears as a symbol, and if i have my way, as a symbol of life. a soldier died trying to cross a river. although he didn't find to live his life to the full, there was courage in the way he died. now the narrator, who is obviously aged and who remembers the dead soldier, is approaching his own natural death. the rhetorical question asked in the 1st stz is not answered in the whole of the poem and is left to the reader to ponder why. well, this is my response to that question.
a brilliant, symbolic poem!! -
this was just a quick read, and it almost made me cry!! wonderful poem!! this is not much of a comment, but i'll be back to say on it more about it.
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This is a good poem about a World War II hero.
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