Poetry Peace and War

the first world war
the 1930s
the second world war
crimes against humanity
the nuclear age
other wars
responsibility
WOMEN'S VOICES
- Introduction GO
- Come on, come back GO
- The Enemies GO
- A Wartime Education GO
- Tortures GO

The Enemies Elizabeth Jennings Last night they came across the river and Entered the city. Women were awake With lights and food. They entertained the band, Not asking what the men had come to take Or what strange tongue they spoke Or why they came so suddenly through the land. Now in the morning all the town is filled With stories of the swift and dark invasion; The women say that not one stranger told A reason for his coming. The intrusion Was not for devastation: Peace is apparent still on hearth and field. Yet all the city is a haunted place. Man meeting man speaks cautiously. Old friends Close up the candid looks upon their face. There is no warmth in hands accepting hands; Each ponders, 'Better hide myself in case Those strangers have set up their homes in minds I used to walk in. Better draw the blinds Even if the strangers haunt in my own house'.		INDEX the first world war the 1930s the second world war crimes against humanity the nuclear age other wars responsibility WOMEN'S VOICES - Introduction GO - Come on, come back GO - The Enemies GO - A Wartime Education GO - Tortures GO See also: Women against war in WW1
INFORMATION This poem was written in the 1950s 'band': the group of invaders 'hands accepting hands': handshakes 'set up their homes in minds/I used to walk in': influenced the minds of people I used to know very well IDEAS The poem is about the way fear of strangers - 'the other' - erodes trust. One of the ways in which the poem conveys this so effectively is the use of time in the story-telling: the events cover only a night and a morning, and the poem ends in the uncertainty that is its subject. What could happen next? What should happen next? People who understand and practise the skills of conflict resolution would have good suggestions to make. One of the first things to attempt would be to contain the spread of the virus of fear. The poem also draws attention to the role of women in conflict. These women (the suggestion is that these events are happening in a place and time in the past) fulfil the traditional role of serving. They provide a welcome for the 'swift', 'dark' invaders : is this the ancient law of hospitality, or the product of fear, or a practical response to defuse tension? The women don't ask their uninvited guests to explain themselves - but they do create a situation in which the strangers could, if they chose, tell the women why they have come. (The women imply that the difference in language could have been overcome.) The invaders are all men; and it's the men who have been invaded who put up the shutters and retreat into silence, no longer at ease with each other. The women, one feels, continue to communicate, even without words. Despite - or because of - their supporting role, the women are in a good position to start resisting the virus of fear. Again, what could, what should happen next?