Naming of Parts

Tonight B. and I were reviewing the extensive liner notes to Leave Your Sleep, Natalie Merchant's new collection of songs based on poems for children (I had written "children's poems," but that did not see quite accurate.) It is an impressive and engaging collection, worth all of the seven years Merchant devoted to it. When I saw the entry for Robert Graves mentioning him as one of the World War I poets enshrined in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner, it brought to mind this affecting war poem. I could not remember the name of the poem or the poet. But as I recalled its impact on me, I become obsessed to find it. And I am glad I did. Reed is harder to find than the died-in-the-war poets, but far more useful in understanding war-as-phenomenon rather than war-as-experience. Reed's testing the flavors of the language, evoking the awful irony of military banalities in the ears of a young soldier learning to use his rifle in the ripeness of springtime--the equal of  his contemporary, Larkin. And no higher praise can I bestow. So read on...

LESSONS OF THE WAR

To Alan Michell

Vixi duellis nuper idoneus
Et militavi non sine gloria

I. NAMING OF PARTS

To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
          And to-day we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
          Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
          Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
          They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
          For to-day we have naming of parts.



Reed, Henry. "Naming of Parts." New Statesman and Nation 24, no. 598 (8 August 1942): 92 (.pdf).



I highly recommend you take two minutes to delicately but distinctly improve your soul by listening to Reed reading the poem. "Naming of Parts" is merely Part 1 of the longer poem, "Lessons of War." So don't stop here, read Part 2, Judging Distances and Part 3, "Movement of Bodies" now. Then order the collected works. Why Reed is not among the canonized English poets of war, I cannot understand. Maybe it is merely that his cool, meta-lingustics do not stir the febrile soul the way the less worldly Sassoon and Owen do. Or that WWII was not the same Romantic waste of English youth as WWI. But, hell, whatever the reason, let's you and I correct this distortion of the Free Market of Ideas. History is written by the living. So, let's do this thing. Who's with me?