The several corps of the line, at the appointed hour and place, parade three
deep, and are prepared to draw up so as to form three sides of a square. The
execution parties in divisions, preceded by a band of music, and a corps of
drummers, with the provost-marshal on horseback at their head, march in
ordinary time at the front of the prisoner. The music plays the dead march
in Saul. The guards, formed in divisions, march at the same time in rear of
the prisoner. The main-guard, commanded by the captain of the day, leads.
The others follow in succession, according to the rank of their regiments.
"What are the bugles blowin' for?" said Files-on-Parade.
"To turn you out, to turn you out", the Colour-Sergeant said.
"What makes you look so white, so white?" said Files-on-Parade.
"I'm dreadin' what I've got to watch", the Colour-Sergeant said.
For they're hangin' Danny Deever, you can hear the Dead March play,
The regiment's in 'ollow square -- they're hangin' him to-day;
They've taken of his buttons off an' cut his stripes away,
An' they're hangin' Danny Deever in the mornin'.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frederick Pollack" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 1:30 PM
Subject: Re: 3 poems
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kenneth Wolman" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 8:16 AM
> Subject: Re: 3 poems
>
>
>> Frederick Pollack wrote:
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Douglas Barbour"
>>> <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 12:29 PM
>>> Subject: Re: 3 poems
>>>
>>>
>>>> I'd say all three belong in that Jolly Corner, Fred.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps you are the elegiast of all we have 'enshrined' in these years
>>>> of.....
>>>>
>>>> Doug
>>>
>>> I try ... Isn't there a military (drum) tattoo called the Dirge for the
>>> Unmourned?
>>
>> It's called the War Requiem. Benjamin Britten wrote the music around the
>> poems of Wilfred Owen. Music premiered in 1961 for poems composed in
>> 1917-18. Sadly we continue to know what it means.
>>
>> kw
>>
> No, no, Ken, I know the piece, but what I was thinking of is an actual
> military tattoo, a march-rhythm --- British Army, I thought. Used at
> executions mandated by courts-martial.
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