Title: Through a Glass, Darkly (Patton on the Cyclic Nature of War) Source:
Website of General George S. Patton, Jr. URL Source:http://www.generalpatton.com/poem.html Published:May 19, 2009 Author:George S. Patton, Jr. Post Date:2009-05-20 00:09:09 by Deasy Ping List:*Up to the Sun*Subscribe to *Up to the Sun* Keywords:Asatru, Odin, Norse, Cyclic Views:3332 Comments:69
THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY by Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
Through the travail of the ages, Midst the pomp and toil of war, Have I fought and strove and perished Countless times upon this star.
In the form of many people In all panoplies of time Have I seen the luring vision Of the Victory Maid, sublime.
I have battled for fresh mammoth, I have warred for pastures new, I have listed to the whispers When the race trek instinct grew.
I have known the call to battle In each changeless changing shape From the high souled voice of conscience To the beastly lust for rape.
I have sinned and I have suffered, Played the hero and the knave; Fought for belly, shame, or country, And for each have found a grave.
I cannot name my battles For the visions are not clear, Yet, I see the twisted faces And I feel the rending spear.
Perhaps I stabbed our Savior In His sacred helpless side. Yet, I've called His name in blessing When after times I died.
In the dimness of the shadows Where we hairy heathens warred, I can taste in thought the lifeblood; We used teeth before the sword.
While in later clearer vision I can sense the coppery sweat, Feel the pikes grow wet and slippery When our Phalanx, Cyrus met.
Hear the rattle of the harness Where the Persian darts bounced clear, See their chariots wheel in panic From the Hoplite's leveled spear.
See the goal grow monthly longer, Reaching for the walls of Tyre. Hear the crash of tons of granite, Smell the quenchless eastern fire.
Still more clearly as a Roman, Can I see the Legion close, As our third rank moved in forward And the short sword found our foes.
Once again I feel the anguish Of that blistering treeless plain When the Parthian showered death bolts, And our discipline was in vain.
I remember all the suffering Of those arrows in my neck. Yet, I stabbed a grinning savage As I died upon my back.
Once again I smell the heat sparks When my Flemish plate gave way And the lance ripped through my entrails As on Crecy's field I lay.
In the windless, blinding stillness Of the glittering tropic sea I can see the bubbles rising Where we set the captives free.
Midst the spume of half a tempest I have heard the bulwarks go When the crashing, point blank round shot Sent destruction to our foe.
I have fought with gun and cutlass On the red and slippery deck With all Hell aflame within me And a rope around my neck.
And still later as a General Have I galloped with Murat When we laughed at death and numbers Trusting in the Emperor's Star.
Till at last our star faded, And we shouted to our doom Where the sunken road of Ohein Closed us in it's quivering gloom.
So but now with Tanks a'clatter Have I waddled on the foe Belching death at twenty paces, By the star shell's ghastly glow.
So as through a glass, and darkly The age long strife I see Where I fought in many guises, Many names, but always me.
And I see not in my blindness What the objects were I wrought, But as God rules o'er our bickerings It was through His will I fought.
So forever in the future, Shall I battle as of yore, Dying to be born a fighter, But to die again, once more.
Poster Comment:
"A man must know his destiny. if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder. if he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it."
* Some exerpts from recent Patton biographies regarding the General's feelings about reincarnation, including his poem "Through a Glass Darkly":
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 In His sacred helpless side. Yet I've called His name in blessing When in after times I died.
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 Midst the pomp and toil of war Have I fought and strove and perished Countless times upon this star.
I have sinned and I have suffered Played the hero and the knave Fought for belly, shame or country And for each have found a grave.
So as through a glass and darkly The age long strife I see Where I fought in many guises, Many names -- but always me.
(198-199)
This most moving and complex of his poems concludes with the words:
So forever in the future Shall I battle as of yore, Dying to be born a fighter But to die again once more.
WWII legendary General George S. Patton 'was assassinated'
London, Dec 21 (PTI) -- Conspiracy theories have shrouded the mysterious death of legendary US General George S. Patton for long. Now, 63 years on, a new book has claimed that he was assassinated to silence his criticism of WWII allied leaders.
According to the book, American spy chiefs hatched a plan to assassinate Patton after World War II in connivance with US leaders because he had threatened to expose the allied collusion with the Russians that cost lives of many Americans.
Although Patton had suffered serious injuries in a car crash at Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying home. He died in December 1945.
But, according to the book, the wartime Head of Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Gen "Wild Bill" Donovan ordered a highly decorated marksman Douglas Bazatato "to silence" Patton who gloried in the nickname "Old Blood and Guts".
"Patton was going to resign from the Army. He wanted to go to war with the Russians. The administration thought he was nuts. He also knew secrets of the war which would have ruined careers.
"I don't think Dwight Eisenhower would ever have been elected President if Patton had lived to say the things he wanted to say," the author of the book 'Target Patton', Robert Wilcox, was quoted by British newspaper 'The Sunday Telegraph' as saying.
In fact, military historian Wilcox has cited extracts from the newly unearthed diaries of the assassin Bazatato, who died in 1999, as well as interviews with him to corroborate his claims in the newly published book. The book details how Bazatato staged the car crash by getting a troop truck to plough into Patton's Cadillac and then shot the US General with a low- velocity projectile, which broke his neck while his fellow passengers escaped literally without a scratch.
Wilcox told the British newspaper that when he spoke to Bazata: "He was struggling with himself, all these killings he had done. He confessed to me he had caused the accident, that he was ordered to do so by Wild Bill Donovan.
"Donovan told him: 'We've got a terrible situation with this great patriot, he's out of control and we must save him from himself and from ruining everything the allies have done.' I believe Douglas Bazata. He's a sterling guy." Bazata led an extraordinary life. He was a member of the Jedburghs, the elite unit who parachuted into France to help organise the Resistance in the run up to D-Day in 1944.
After the war he became a celebrated artist who enjoyed the patronage of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He ended his career as an aide to US President Ronald Reagan's Navy Secretary John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission.
Or if we had not taken military action against Japan's iron and petroleum supply lines before Pearl Harbor. They understood the threat of communism. They had an answer to Mao.
Or if we had not taken military action against Japan's iron and petroleum supply lines before Pearl Harbor. They understood the threat of communism. They had an answer to Mao.
China's political history in the 19 century is difficult to apprehend. Specialists who are fluent in the language are at odds with each other on some basic concerns.
I might say Mao had an answer to the Japanese invasion of China.
He ran them out with the support of General Joe Stilwell, one of the most interesting and little known aspects of the pre-revolutionary fall of the Koumintang fascist party rule.
And he had about 80 -90% support of the Chinese population.
Chiang Kai-shek was a thoroughly miserable "leader" of China as he was only concerned with the ability of his clan to feed off the misery of the cooolies.
Madame Chiang was a demon.
These were the regime the United States aligned ourselves with, to the eternal disrespect and suspecion of the ComChi .