tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5910291709965283166.post7058388555563920041..comments2024-01-14T12:04:49.488-05:00Comments on Behind the Lines: Poetry, War, & Peacemaking: Don Share's "At Home"Philip Metreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449159681282927289noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5910291709965283166.post-15285406193521369552011-08-13T07:09:16.260-04:002011-08-13T07:09:16.260-04:00Quinn, I agree with you, quote whole-heartedly, th...Quinn, I agree with you, quote whole-heartedly, that the poem is not reducible to a sloganeering anti-war poem, precisely for the reasons you suggest. It seems to say: conflict is everywhere. hypocrisy everywhere. Because it resists the "domestic"-"love"/"abroad"-war dichotomy that's so typical of a lot of anti-war poems (and some great ones), it has a bracing quality about it. Thanks, Quinn, for elaborating on why this poem is worthy of reflection.Philip Metreshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05449159681282927289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5910291709965283166.post-25947604102861162902011-08-13T02:01:51.562-04:002011-08-13T02:01:51.562-04:00I was compelled from start to end in my first read...I was compelled from start to end in my first reading of "At Home" out of Sqandermania. The nursery-rhyme rhythm caught my ear, then betrayed it, turning the pinna over to the unraveling of dependable beat as the layered domestic tensions and ruptures are revealed. The poem clinches its task with the final jingoist slogan: a shallow chant exposed as inadequate by comparison to the child's sing-song, and all the more unacceptable because the slogan lacks even the defense of innocence. But I would resist pegging this superb piece simply as an anti-war poem, unless that interpretation embraces the complexity of psychological angst, marital conflict, and parental anxiety along with nationalistic barbarism. When Share points one finger with any hint of " j'accuse," he knows that three fingers retroflex to himself. He is no hypocrite.<br />a few seconds agoQuinn Chipleynoreply@blogger.com