What Was That Amazing Poem that Sen.Byrd Quoted

[slinkerwink]

About the 700 dead?

[tom_paine]

1. kick

I didn't hear the speech, but I am intrigued.

Was it the "Charge of the Light Brigade"

Into the valley of death rode the 600...

[NewJeffCT]

2. yes, it was (nt)

[codegreen]

3. i heard it, it was

[slinkerwink]

4. yes! that was it!

thanks! :toast:

[Warren Stuart]

5. No it's The Wasteland by T.S. Elliot

April is the cruelest month.

The 700 dead refer to number of soldiers killed in Iraq so far.

[NewJeffCT]

9. in a previous speech

When the death toll topped 600 a few weeks back, Byrd did mention the Charge of the Light Brigade.

[demnan]

6. He quotes T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland"

but I don't think there's a quote about 700 dead in that poem.

[ThatPoetGuy]

10. "A crowd flowed across London Bridge, so many,

I had not thought death had undone so many"

[nostamj]

7. The Charge of the Light Brigade

Note: in yesterday's speech he also reference T.S. Eliot's THE WASTE LAND ("April is the cruelest month")


The Charge of the Light Brigade
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.


2.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.


3.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.


4.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.


5.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.


6.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

[arcane1]

8. do you mean yesterday's speech?

-snip-

It is the poet T.S. Eliot who reminds us, as if we needed to be reminded, that "April is the cruelest month."
...

In the weeks and months leading up to the war, Americans were assured by the President and his cadre of top advisers – most particularly Vice President Dick Cheney – that we would be greeted as liberators in Iraq, our path to victory strewn with cheers and flowers. Those flowers, it now appears, are less like rose petals tossed at the feet of liberators and more like Eliot's mournful April lilacs – "Lilacs out of the deadland, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain."

http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_speeches/byrd_speeches_2004_april/byrd_speeches_2004_april_list/byrd_speeches_2004_april_list_2.html