In the War Cemetery

Publication Instance Details #1165

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	No	No	Yes	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	War HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies
Languages	English
Genre	Lyric Sequence
Medium	Print Collection
Paratext Text	(If you are going to stay in a place, build - proverb)
Notes	This lyric sequence appears to describe a war cemetery that contains the bodies of many young men killed in British colonial wars, as well as some Muslim graves, which are set apart. There are references to British and American colonial figures: Denys Finch-Hatton, a British aristocrat, who was killed in a plane crash in Kenya and buried there; Hugh Chomondeley, 3rd Baron Delamare, who was one of the most famous British colonials; and William Northrup McMillan, an American philanthropist. The speaker appears to contrast the lives of these successful colonists with those who were killed in war: these 'youngsters' dreamed of inheriting the same freedom and potential but now lie in the ground, 'in obscene conformity'.