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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TRENCH NOMENCLATURE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN

Poet Analysis

First Line: GENIUS NAMED THEM, AS I LIVE! WHAT BUT GENIUS COULD COMPRESS
Last Line: FROM THE FABLED VASE THE GENIE IN HIS SHATTERING HORROR CAME.
Subject(s): WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

GENIUS named them, as I live! What but genius could compress
In a title what man's humour said to man's supreme distress?
@3Jacob's Ladder@1 ran reversed, from earth to a fiery pit extending,
With not angels but poor Angles, those for the most part descending.
Thence @3Brock's Benefit@1 commanded endless fireworks by two nations,
Yet some voices there were raised against the rival coruscations.
@3Picturedome@1 peeped out upon a dream, not Turner could surpass,
And presently the picture moved, and greyed with corpses and morass.
So down south; and if remembrance travel north, she marvels yet
At the sharp Shakespearean names, and with sad mirth her eyes are wet.
@3The Great Wall of China@1 rose, a four-foot breastwork, fronting guns
That, when the word dropped, beat at once its silly ounces with brute tons;
Odd @3Krab Krawl@1 on paper looks, and odd the foul-breathed alley twisted,
As one feared to twist there too, if @3Minnie,@1 forward quean, insisted.
Where the Yser at @3Dead End@1 floated on its bloody waters
Dead and rotten monstrous fish, note (east) @3The Pike and Eel@1 headquarters.
Ah, such names and apparitions! name on name! what's in a name?
From the fabled vase the genie in his shattering horror came.



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