A poem that launched a 1000 ships

Published on by Laura Bloomsbury

The long sobs
Of violins
Of autumn

Wound my heart
With a monotonous
Languor.

All breathless
And pale, when
The hour sounds,

I remember
The old days
And I cry;

And I go
In the ill wind
That carries me

Here, there,
Like the
Dead leaf.

Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem, Chanson d’Automne. The first 3 lines were broadcast by the BBC as signal to the French Resistance. that Operation Overlord (the Normandy Landings of June 6th 1944) was about to begin.
Dedicated with thanks to my son who accompanied me here in September to the beaches of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword. on this 80th anniversary year of the end of WW2. Their windswept emptiness a paradoxical epitaph.

14 thoughts on “A poem that launched a 1000 ships”

  2. Tugs at the root of one, this war cry, Laura. We are so in danger of forgetting, or worse, none of us ever quite getting to grips with the truth of what happened; what it meant and means. I went to the Omaha years ago, and to the nearby cemetery. Those places stay with one.

    1. I do agree Tish – the human sacrifice feels like it was in vain sometimes but I worry that there are parallels being drawn between now and then for political gains without any veracity.
      Omaha was shocking in terms of the cliffs that had to be faced and hence we can see why the death toll was so high. I went to the British Commonwealth cemetery at Bayeux plus the memorial at Gold beach – photos in the following posts

      1. There seems little interest in truth, Laura – and that applies to every current topic and situation of importance. Scape-goating rules.

  4. Thank you for these photos. My father was there. They seems to capture what all those soldiers must have been feeling. (K)

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