Poetry Peace and War

PART 7: RESPONSIBILITY

The Responsibility Peter Appleton I am the man who gives the word, If it should come, to use the Bomb. I am the man who spreads the word From him to them if it should come. I am the man who gets the word From him who spreads the word from him. I am the man who drops the Bomb If ordered by the one who's heard From him who merely spreads the word The first one gives if it should come. I am the man who loads the Bomb That he must drop should orders come From him who gets the word passed on By one who waits to hear from him. I am the man who makes the Bomb That he must load for him to drop If told by one who gets the word From one who passes it from him. I am the man who fills the till, Who pays the tax, who foots the bill That guarantees the Bomb he makes For him to load for him to drop If orders come from one who gets The word passed on to him by one Who waits to hear it from the man Who gives the word to use the Bomb. I am the man behind it all; I am the one responsible.		INDEX the first world war the 1930s the second world war crimes against humanity the nuclear age other wars RESPONSIBILITY - Introduction GO - The hand that signed the paper GO - The Castle GO - The Responsibility GO - The Voice of Authority GO women's voices
IDEAS Once one has got one's head round who each 'him' is, the point is clear: if we don't want bombs we shouldn't let our taxes pay for them. But look at the order of events. The poem doesn't stick to a chronological sequence. If it did, the loading of the bomb would precede the dropping of it. The chosen order stresses two things. First: the Bomb is made - already the chosen weapon - long before the top man 'gives the word' to use it. Its very existence means that it's always in the equation. Second: it's the people's money 'that guarantees the Bomb' is made. The last two lines give another choice. Who is the speaker? The man who has just been speaking, the taxpayer? Or the first speaker, the man who 'gives the word'? Or another, more shadowy figure ? If 'the man behind it all' is a new speaker, who might he be? And is the poem's ambiguity about this an accident or a design? We're certainly provoked into thinking about responsibility, and how even one man's refusal to take part in the chain of command could change everything....