"You've raised a marble tomb 'To The Unknown Soldier'
But we who survived now starve on the dole, unknown.
The grave is cold - but your charity is colder,
we ask for bread and you've given us a stone."
Author notes
THE LAST LINE WAS THE SLOGAN OF THE "UNEMPLOYED EX-SERVICEMEN'S LEAGUE"
During the great slump that followed the First World War, my father was one of thousands who, having survived the trenches, joined the "Unemployed Ex-Servicemen's League" struggling (in vain) for a raise of the starvation level Dole at the same time as the Government unveiled The Cenotaph, the 'tomb of the Unknown Soldier' to commemorate "The Glorious Dead". In Mathew 7-9 Jesus says "Or what man is there of you, if his son ask him for bread would give him a stone?"
A contest entry
- Slogans by 2lullabyhaven.
450 points, ended September 27, 23 entries
Honorable winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 7 of 7
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This short poem says so much about the way countries reward their returning soldiers. The most unfortunate part is that it continues to this day.
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Excellent
Very effective, excellent writing. Informative. Thank you.
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This is really strong. All the best.
In Remembrance
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Short, sharp, compact with impact.
The title pinpoints the era with clarity and is an effective introduction and provides imagery-what is equally as sad is this as true today as it was in your dear Father's day.
Our soldiers sent to serve when they are in their prime and upon return to civvy street they all too often are no longer seen as commodities that are purposeful for a use or treated with any deference to their experience.
I am an ardent supporter of memorials but not at cost those that are living. My own Grandad told me tales of these times that relied on as much spirit to survive as it did in the trenches.
'Tis all true, the poorhouse loomed over their heads like another deathknell, nothing was wasted, the cabbage water drunk for goodness and so that nothing was wasted.
The authorities seeing sheets on beds as luxuries and saying sell them or you are not yet broke, and worse, those soldiers shellshocked and nerve damaged treated with electric shock therapy if they could no longer serve, treated inhumanely in sanatoriums and then left to try and survive in a world where there was no comfort.
A pleasure to read this well written piece of poetry, honouring the suffering that was in continuum for these men who had the brawn and brains but were treated worse than cattle in the marketplace.
God bless 'em all
NB Going off tangent ( as am apt to do!) Isn't it a source of pride that Owen's poetry is safe and sound alongside the Magna Carta?
He was perceived as a traitor at first for writing the truth but he wrote of the hell from the heart of the matter.
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Wow. This is powerful. The year my father was born, into a depression that took him into the next war.
The final line, the slogan, is in the words of folk songs I've heard here, too.
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fascinating...you put some serious thought and depth into the history backing this piece, and your explanation.
well done.
Smile♫
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Powerful...thanks for your entry lol so much said-wow
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