POEM OF THE DAY

ONE of the major poetic responses to the Second World War, Hamish Henderson’s Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica are based on his experiences as an intelligence officer in the North Africa Campaign. Here in the short Ninth Elegy, subtitled Fort Capuzzo (scene of frequent battles), Henderson is at his most compassionate, not just sharing the thoughts but the language of his fellow soldiers. Born in 1919, Henderson survived the war and died in 2002.

NINTH ELEGY

For there will come a day When the Lord will say – Close Order!

One evening, breaking a jeep journey at Capuzzo

I noticed a soldier as he entered the cemetery

And stood looking at the grave of a fallen enemy.

Then I understood the meaning of the hard word ‘pietas’

(a word unfamiliar to the newsreel commentator

As well as the pimp, the informer, and the traitor).

His thought was like this. – Here’s another ‘Good Jerry’!

Poor mucker. Just eighteen. Must be hard-up for man-power.

Or else he volunteered, silly bastard. That’s the fatal, the-fatal mistake. Never volunteer for nothing.

I wonder how he died? Just as well it was him, though,

And not one of our chaps . . . Yes, the only good Jerry,

As they say, is your sort, chum. Cheerio, you poor bastard.

Don’t be late on parade when the Lord calls ‘Close Order.’

Keep waiting for the angels. Keep listening for Reveille.

l As well as Henderson’s command of army vernacular, there are frequent moments of sheer linguistic bravura in The Elegies. For example: “the limitless shabby lion-pelt of the desert completes and rounds” a sentry’s ennui. The concept of “death’s proletariat” is reiterated in the Third Elegy, where finally the British forces see the advancing Germans as “the others, the brothers in death’s proletariat.”