Lincoln’s birthday
February 12, 2008 – 7:00 amHappy Abe Lincoln’s bithday.
I’m sure most of us remember when there was no Presidents’ Day, but rather two distinct and separate times to remember Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. And we made silhouettes of each of them from black construction paper. And we memorized poetry. Wouldn’t this be a good day to search your old poetry books or go on line to once again read, “Oh Captain, My Captain” by Walt Whitman? Some of the lines may even come back to you from those days of yore.
In poetry class yesterday, some of my classmates remembered these other poems – “When Lilacs Last In the Door-yard Bloom’d,” also by Walt Whitman and “O Ship of State” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
We also discussed World War II poetry, recalling a poem we had read in an earlier semester, “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” by Randall Jarrell. This is the only World War II poem I have been able to come up with, but we did have an abundance of songs back then.
Women in my book We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II, speak of this music with great fondness. Among the favorites were “I’ll be Seeing You,” “White Cliffs of Dover,” “We’ll Meet Again-Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When,” “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,” “As Time Goes By,” “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” and “Lili Marlene.” And who could ever forget Kate Smith’s singing “God Bless America” every day at noon.
If you have a favorite from those days, please share it. And I’m still looking for World War II poetry.
Let me add a note about this blog. I apologize for not updating it last week. I couldn’t understand why a new post did not appear. Then I realized I had neglected to push the proper button. I won’t forget that again, but I may make some new mistakes. Please bear with me. Thanks
You must be logged in to post a comment.