[lit-ideas] Violence, held momentarialy in reserve
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 11:25:29 -0800
Knox, op. cit., page 30
"The most marvelous lines in the Iliad owe their unearthly, poignant beauty
to the presence of violence, held momentarily in reserve but brooding over
the landscape. They are the lines that end Book 8 and describe the Trojans
camped on the plain, awaiting the next dawn, which will launch them on their
attack on the Greek fortification.
'And so their spirits soared
As they took positions down the passageways of battle
All night long, and the watchfires blazed among them.
Hundreds strong, as stars in the night sky glittering
Round the moon's brilliance blaze in all their glory
When the air falls to a sudden, windless calm . . .
All the lookout peaks stand out and the jutting cliffs
And the steep ravines and down from the high heavens bursts
The boundless bright air and all the stars shine clear
And the shepherd's heart exults - so many firs burned
between the ships and the Xanthus' whirling rapids
set by the men of Troy, bright against their walls.'
These are surely the clearest hills, the most brilliant stars and the
brightest fires in all poetry, and everyone who has waited to go into battle
knows how true the lines are, how clear and memorable and lovely is every
detail of the landscape the soldier fears he may be seeing for the last
time."
I can't say that I feared seeing things for the last time, but some of my
most memorable times and vivid memories were from standing watch at night in
Korea. Once I was in a wood inside our encampment during a lightning
storm. On another occasion I was at the corner of our base. There was a
former rice paddy there and it was raining heavily. The paddy was filled to
overflowing and one had to know where the perimeter was (as it too was
underwater, but not only a few inches) to avoid falling in. So one walked
along the narrow way between the paddy and the fence, and just the week
before I walked there, one of our sergeants shot a North Korean attempting
to do who knows what outside our fence. I could not see well, only a few
feet beyond the fence, but then no one out there could see me well either -
especially if I moved carefully.
And then when the truce was signed I was on the Island of Cheju-do and there
was a large prison there, housing 3000 prisoners. They were released and
told to find their way up North (at least that's what I was told) which an
estimated 500 chose not to do but to instead live off the land up Cheju
mountain. We could see their fires burning at night. We were told some
soldiers went up there one day hunting and never returned. We didn't know
what they might do; so we watched and were careful. I recall climbing up
into one of the prison watchtowers during the time we were waiting to see if
they might come after us. There were only 30 Marines on Cheju Island and
anything, we were told, might happen. I sat up in that watch tower with my
M1, a couple of bandoleers of 30-06 ammo and several grenades. There was no
phone to communicate with if anything happened, but nothing did. They
weren't armed when they went up Cheju Mountain; so why would they want to
come after armed Marines, even if we were few - or even one in a watchtower
feeling a tiny bit of what the Trojans felt "as they took their positions
down the passageways of battle all night long . . . ."
Lawrence
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