![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
PART 4: Crimes against humanity |
After the War Douglas Dunn The soldiers came, brewed tea in Snoddy's field
|
INDEX the first world war
|
|
INFORMATION
|
See also: Conscition today |
|
HISTORY Douglas Dunn, the son of a factory worker, was born in Scotland in 1942: he was only 3 when the Second World War ended. After going to university he became a librarian, and also a poet. His first published poems were praised for their atmospheric evocation of working class life. |
||
IDEAS The telling of the story is less simple. Images of natural objects - the broken egg, the pine cones, the trampled hawthorn blossom - carry strong messages of violence. So do the children's games, from their 'cunning' in pretend battles to the vividness of their imaginations: the bleeding faces, the blood-stained map. The games are exciting. But reality is different - the soldiers' 'sudden arrival silenced us' - especially for the boy who goes back to his 'untended garden' 'filled with broken toys' with no-one to mend them. This subtle, seemingly quiet poem is about a crime against humanity and its effect on individuals: exciting and enticing for children, lethal and lawful for their parents. The crime? War itself. |
||
![]() |