Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Wilfred Owen

The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

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 and trenches there,
And stretchèd 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...

1 comment:

Coye said...

Owen was an English poet born in 1893 and wrote most of his poems in the trenches of France during the First World War; he is, for my money, the best war poet in the English language (Benjamin Britten's War Requiem uses Owen's poetry as its libretto). He was killed one week before the Armistice.