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PART 7: RESPONSIBILITY |
The Responsibility Peter Appleton I am the man who gives the word, I am the man who spreads the word I am the man who gets the word I am the man who drops the Bomb I am the man who loads the Bomb I am the man who makes the Bomb I am the man who fills the till, I am the man behind it all; |
INDEX the first world war
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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.... |
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