I think this is one poem which has to be considered in its historical context
to be understood. I suspect that many people today who may read the poem
aren't aware that it was written during World War II, that the child died in
the blitz, and that the fire was Nazi bombs. This makes the poem doubly
rejectionist: not only is it a poem about the death of a child which rejects
sentimentality, it's an anti-war and anti-fascist poem which rejects
ideological pontification and moralistic hand-wringing. Few poets today, I
think, would venture to write a political and anti-war poem which is so
isolated from any, even implicit, ideological posturing (perhaps The Iliad is
such a poem,) which may be one reason why among the massive flood of political
poetry being produced today, so little of it seems unstrained.
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Jon Corelis [log in to unmask]
www.geocities.com/joncpoetics
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