The Parable Of The Old Man And The Young

War memorial shaped like an altar in Sainte-Marie-à-Py (dep. Marne, France) for
commemorating the civilian and military residents who died in both World Wars

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) was the most famous British war poet. As I have written in a recent blog, he was killed in action, on 4 November 1918, one week before the end of the First World War, in Ors (Nord department) in Northern France. (see my blog dated 5 August 2022 and the next one) Owen’s poems on the First World War apply in many cases to the present Ukraine-Russia War as well. Therefore, now and then I have quoted and will quote one of his war poems.

The Parable Of The Old Man And The Young

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,

And took the fire with him, and a knife.

And as they sojourned both of them together,

Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,

Behold the preparations, fire and iron,

But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?

Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,

And builded parapets and trenches there,

And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.

When lo! an Angel called him out of heaven,

Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,

Neither do anything to him, thy son.

Behold! Caught in a thicket by its horns,

A Ram. Offer the Ram of Pride instead.

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,

And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

Wilfred Owen

Notes

- The lines 1-14 follow the wording of Genesis 22:1-19 very closely.
- line 7: belts and straps: As of a soldier’s equipment.

Source
- For the poem https://allpoetry.com/Wilfred-Owen
- For the notes Jon Stallwortby (ed.), The Poems of Wilfred Owen. London: Chatto & Windus, 1990: p. 151