Never again ?

[Neville Briggs]

I hear on the news that another one of our soldiers has been killed in Afghanistan.
So I put this one on.

It's more informal in arrangement. It has a lot of place names and to get a more formal rhyme and metre I thought that I would have had to put in too many words which were just fillers that had no other purpose than to make the rhyme and metre.
Although it is an informal structure, it is not unstructured. I have tried to include poetic elements such as assonance, alliteration, some metric rhythm in parts and repeats to stand for the echo of rhyme.



NEVER AGAIN

It was "the war to end all wars",
thousands fell at the Somme.
And the League of Nations was born,
" Never again " they said.

The brutal slaughter of Armenians,
Nanking was put to the sword.
Men died like dogs on the Burma Railway,
and the bombs rained down on Dresden.
At Auschwitz, the ashes of millions.
And the United Nations was born,
"Never again " they said.

For Russia; the gulags. For China; Red Guards.
Korea and Tibet saw brute force.
Lebanon torn apart by hate
and the Vietnam war dragged on.
Still the United Nations met,
"Never again " they said.

On 9/11 the towers came down,
now death on the streets of Iraq.
Uncounted slain in the Congo each day.
The suffering of Afghanistan.
Bombers can strike anywhere in the world,
the rockets fly in Gaza.
The United Nations solemnly meets,
" Never again " they say.

[Heather]

Geez, you know how to cheer everyone up Neville. I like it. I do think the first line is too cliched though - if I may say that - with respect. I do like the repeat of "Never again". It is ominous.

Very saddened to hear of the loss of another young man.

Heather

[Neville Briggs]

I'll think on what you say Heather.
It is indeed a well worn phrase, the reason I chose it was because people tried to convince themselves that WW1 marked the end of war because of the terrible cost that war had become. Instead it became the beginning of the litany of conflict that I have described. I put the cliché in to make the point that the mantra of " the war to end all wars" has obviously become meaningless and that slogans about ending war are nothing more than stale platitudes.
Thanks for taking time to reply.

[Heather]

I only say that Neville because I try hard not to be obvious when I write a serious poem and that is because you have always instilled in me the "show don't tell". For what it's worth.

Heather

[Neville Briggs]

Thanks Heather. This is one I did over two years ago, ( in my early phase so I'll think about it what you have said. I'm going through all my early ones and re-writing where I can think of improvements.

[Heather]

Look forward to seeing what you come up with Neville.

[Heather]

Neville, what about, "war to end all wars" in quotation marks.

[Neville Briggs]

I put that in Heather

[Heather]

Works for me Neville