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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: Through a Glass, Darkly (Patton on the Cyclic Nature of War) THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY Poster Comment: At dinner, say, after grandly intoning Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" ("If I should die, think only this of me/There is some corner in a foreign field/That is forever England" [sic]), Georgie [Patton] might offer his fond prediction that he would die in a foreign land, since, as Napoleon said, the boundaries of an empire are marked by the graves of her soldiers. Beatrice [Patton's wife] would nod, the fire in the fireplace would crackle significantly, and the meal would resume as the girls furtively eyed their father in expectation of his next trick. If discussing reincarnation (one of his favorite topics), he would offer up as evidence pertinent bits of The Bhagavad Gita ("For sure is the death of him that is born, and sure the birth of him that is dead"), and his old standby, Revelations 3:12: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." To these he added the fifth stanza of Papa's [Patton's father] favorite poem, Wordsworth's "Intimations" ode: "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting,/The soul that rises with us, our life's Star,/Hath had elsewhere its setting/And cometh from afar." Clearly, Georgie said, Wordsworth shared his belief in reincarnation. (Patton, The Pattons: A Portrait of an American Family, 198) The best expression of his past lives appears in a lengthy poem written in 1922 . . . .Titled "Through a Glass Darkly," Patton demonstrates a powerful belief in God and alludes to earlier lives, the first of which may have been as a caveman. He even suggests that while Christ was on the cross Perhaps I stabbed our Savior (D'Este, Patton A Genius for War, 324) More stanzas from this poem come from Patton, The Pattons: A Portrait of an American Family (the first and third stanzas reproduced here were quoted in the movie 1970 film Patton, starring George C. Scott): Through the travail of the ages I have sinned and I have suffered So as through a glass and darkly (198-199) This most moving and complex of his poems concludes with the words: So forever in the future (D'Este, Patton A Genius for War, 324) Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 17.
#15. To: Deasy, All (#0)
(Edited)
No, I don't believe that Patton was insane either. His words have power and humility at the same time. And I see not in my blindness Thoughtful humility is the mark of a sound mind. Thank you Deasy, for the muscular and sparkling verses of Patton, and keep me on your list. Don't have a lot of time today to comment but to say thanks to all for the great posts and to Sam too for posting Washington's Farewell Address. The comments and posts here are always stellar. When I come here to read and exchange opinions with you all here, I sometimes feel that I am speaking with the last Americans.
that's very nice, randge. thank you for that.
Christine, thank you for encouraging such open discussion here.
#19. To: Deasy, all (#17)
I can think of nothing that is not 'fair game' here. And unlike Muddog's Met's post, we WILL touch all the bases around the diamond.
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