When you see millions of the mouthless dead
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you'll remember. For you need not so.
Give them not praise. For, deaf, how should they know
It is not curses heaped on each gashed head?
Nor tears. Their blind eyes see not your tears flow.
Nor honour. It is easy to be dead.
Say only this, “They are dead.” Then add thereto,
“Yet many a better one has died before.”
Then, scanning all the o'ercrowded mass, should you
Perceive one face that you loved heretofore,
It is a spook. None wears the face you knew.
Great death has made all his for evermore.
Charles Sorley
September/October, 1915
Charles Sorley was killed at the age of twenty on 13th October 1915, in the Battle of Loos.
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Place: 52 out of 66 Avg (all users): 5.1250 Avg (commenters): 6.8000 Avg (participants): 5.4194 Avg (non-participants): 4.9846 Views since voting: 456 Views during voting: 206 Votes: 96 Comments: 8 Favorites: 0
I'm not giving a very high vote for this, but I want to explain why. I view a photo's relevance to the topic almost exclusively by feel. I sit and look at the photo, and see if it triggers anything in me reminiscent of the prompt. I very rarely consider titles, and if I do, it is as a secondary consideration. To me, a photo should speak and the caption should echo. For me, personally, this doesn't speak Remembrance, or service, or honor, or anything pertaining to the subject. It has to do with what the photo evokes for me, and if I can construe that to pertain to the challenge. This reminds me of the ephemeral, and is gorgeous as a a photo, truly, but for me is not suited to the challenge without the title, which means the photo is not suited to the challenge. Would get high marks from me in a FS, but a 5 here.
Very interesting line from a cool poem. Thanks for making me look it up. Now I am trying to figure out what this leaf has to do with remembrance. If only I could get inside your head.