With this past weekend blogging about WWI letters with the 100th Centennial for the US entering The Great War, our blog post this morning is on the MAUNDY THURSDAY WWI poem by Wilfred Owen. And I’ve included below the links to my 2015 and 2016 Maundy Thursday blog posts here at AnchoredScraps.
“Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) is widely recognised as one of the greatest voices of the First World War … He was killed on 4 November 1918 during the battle to cross the Sambre-Oise canal at Ors.
Virtually all the poems for which he is now remembered were written in a creative burst between August 1917 and September 1918.”
MAUNDY THURSDAY WWI poem by Wilfred Owen
“Between the brown hands of a server-lad
The silver cross was offered to be kissed.
The men came up, lugubrious, but not sad,
And knelt reluctantly, half-prejudiced.
(And kissing, kissed the emblem of a creed.)
Then mourning women knelt; meek mouths they had,
(And kissed the Body of the Christ indeed.)
Young children came, with eager lips and glad.
(These kissed a silver doll, immensely bright.)
Then I, too, knelt before that acolyte.
Above the crucifix I bent my head:
The Christ was thin, and cold, and very dead:
And yet I bowed, yea, kissed – my lips did cling.
(I kissed the warm live hand that held the thing.)”
“MAUNDY THURSDAY is a sonnet of undivided lines in regular iambic pentameter…” If you have some time you will want to check out The Wilifred Owen Association website.
I’m closing today’s post like previous Maundy Thursday posts here, without my usual anchor signature.
For these three days leading up to Easter, wishing you a special and meaningful Triduum. Join me tomorrow for my Good Friday Blog post.
