Poetry Forum

Magnificat

(In homage to the names of Civil War battlefields)

Wilderness is a place to die, and since you’re dead,
Fort Pillow is a place to rest your head.
If Chickamauga beckoned you could avoid
eternity in a nameless place.

Appomattox sings across the years, and
Chickahominy is better said than not;
Better than ‘Quiet Acres’ or some such plot.

You might lie with the long dead boys,
good old boys who died for History.
May as well die for something,
if you’re seventeen, at Chantilly.

You could tat some tales, read them news,
since ghosts are curious and like to pass the time.
You could speak to them in old italian:

"Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est
et sanctum nomen eius. "
And that would give them something
to think about.

DG

Ah, the poetry of place names. This is just the sort of thing I like DG, but you've done good things with it. The lilt, the heft of your lines is great, almost musical, especially

May as well die for something,
if you’re seventeen, at Chantilly.

I also really like ghosts are curious and like to pass the time, although I think describing the Latin (it is Latin, isn't it?) as "old Italian" is unduly, too cutely circuitous.

Gave me something to think about too. I don't see the relevance of this extract from the Magnificat at all. Still, brush these pettifogging observations aside. (Actually, it's not pettifogging at all, it's the title of your poem, but I'm sure I'm missing something.)

Another good'un.

David

Hi DG,

I enjoyed this, but like David, I feel I am missing something.

I love the sound of the place names, especially Chickamauga/Chickahominy which I presume derive from a Native American language.
What do they mean, btw?

Geoff

True story (?) -
I heard, on a radio phone-in about tourists, an English tourist said that he'd been on a tour of U.S Civil war battlefields.
An American asked the guide
"Why is it that all these battles were fought in National Parks?"

hmm

"for he that is mighty has magnified me:
and holy is his name".

i have puzzled over this for a while and still can't figure out the significance. the only resonance i could think of would be a connection between god magnifying mary and the old dead men of the civil war magnifying the addressee (who is younger, i think?) by allowing him to lie in death with them. that's a shot in the dark.

‘Shouting the battlecry of Freedom’. I thought it was really good, but I’m biased. After spending years on WWI, I turned to the Civil War – talk about complex issues.

I love all the names, you picked some good ones – They must have made the blood run cold for a long time afterwards - Chickasaw Bayou; Rappahannock; Opequon; Antietam …….you could have written an epic.

Great opener –
‘Wilderness is a place to die, and since you’re dead,
Fort Pillow is a place to rest your head’

‘tat some tales’ I’m not familiar with that expression – ‘tat’? As in tit for tat?

‘Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est
et sanctum nomen eius.’ - Might just give them something to cuss about as well.

A good read - nice one

Barrie

Chickahominy: River in Virginia, which, according to De Vere, is named from the Indian word, Checahaminend, "land of much rain," so called because it flows through fertile lowlands. Heckewelder, however, says that it is corrupted from Tschikene-mahoni, "a lick frequented by turkeys." (!)

Chickamauga River, Tennessee: From a Cherokee Indian word, meaning "river of death"
http://www.sacklunch.net/placenames/

I was at a cemetary in the UK, and there were two nuns mooching about, one of whom was reciting the Magnificat, and I wondered what on earth for? I just thought I'd use it.

Old italian was a joke. The proper poem has it as Latin. (Sorry). DG

When I babel-fished the Latin using Italian to English, it came back with the same wording except the "et" which was displayed in upper case "ET". That threw me a bit. I felt I was missing some hidden meaning too, but really enjoyed the flow.

Nice one

Mick

"Tat" as in tatting lace......
Thank you for reading the poem. "Borrowing" those names made the poem fairly easy to write. Just had to tat them together, so to speak.

I've just realised that everytime one posts a reply to a comment the poem swoops up to the top of the list, which is a bit embarrassing. Some fora only promote new poems or edits, not replies to posts. I shall have to be more circumspect.