Sunday, November 4, 2007

Thomas Hardy's "Christmas: 1924"/Everything is Getting Better, Better All the Time

Thomas Hardy, “Christmas: 1924"

'Peace upon earth!' was said. We sing it,
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousand years of mass
We've got as far as poison-gas.

3 comments:

Anny Ballardini said...

Ah, this is a good one.
Do you think it was because of the priests?

Philip Metres said...

Anny, good question. Hardy certainly felt the Church was culpable--and, arguably, it had acted as handmaiden to many a slaughter. That rhyme is just so scary: mass to poison gas.

Thanks for checking in.

kando said...

why 1924? 1914 maybe but...