{"id":785,"date":"2012-03-14T12:13:06","date_gmt":"2012-03-14T12:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soundslikewish.wordpress.com\/?p=785"},"modified":"2012-03-14T12:13:06","modified_gmt":"2012-03-14T12:13:06","slug":"contrast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/?p=785","title":{"rendered":"Contrast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contrast is the theme for this week’s photo challenge, but it made me think also of contrasting experiences.\u00a0 The poems in my father’s poetry book demonstrate strong contrasts between the life he had led at home in Australia and the life he was struggling to endure in North Africa in 1941\/42.\u00a0 Here are the first verses of two poems he recorded that show the difference.\u00a0 I have transcribed the poems (below the images) in case his handwriting is unclear.<\/p>\n

The first poem was written by Pte. L. Partridge (NX2196) and was published in the A.I.F. News, 20th December 1941.\u00a0 The Tweed River forms part of the border between the states of Queensland and New South Wales.\u00a0 The countryside and coastline south of the river are fertile and scenic and would well be missed if one was on the other side of the world in a war zone.\u00a0 My father spent a lot of time fishing along this coastline.<\/p>\n

The second poem was written by a soldier in Tobruk, a town in Libya which was taken from the enemy by the 2\/15th battalion of the A.I.F. (Australian Imperial Forces) at Easter 1941.\u00a0 It was Germany’s first defeat in WWII (Tobruk’s Easter Battle 1941<\/em>, John Mackenzie Smith).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Springtime on the Tweed, <\/em>attributed to Pte. L. Partridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Shell at Dusk,\u00a0<\/em>written by a soldier in Tobruk, Libya, 1941<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Springtime on the Tweed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Far away my fancies wander
\nAnd in wayward dreams they lead
\nOut across the blue seas yonder
\nWhere it’s springtime on the Tweed.
\nThere are scrub-clad hills surrounding
\nThe river’s emerald sheen,
\nCrops of corn and cane abounding,
\nWondrous shades of brown and green.<\/p>\n

The Shell at Dusk<\/strong><\/p>\n

A flash in the sky, a distant roar
\nThe awful approaching screaming whine,
\nYou drop on your face, in the dust once more
\nAnd curse the Hun and his 5 point 9.
\nShe bursts to your left where Fred went to ground,
\nYou’re deaf as a post and covered in dirt,
\nHot jagged shrap has whistled around
\nAnd that one’s gone, and you’re still unhurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contrast is the theme for this week’s photo challenge, but it made me think also of contrasting experiences.\u00a0 The poems in my father’s poetry book demonstrate strong contrasts between the life he had led at home in Australia and the life he was struggling to endure in North Africa in 1941\/42.\u00a0 Here are the first … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Contrast”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,34,35],"tags":[4,5,26,33],"class_list":["post-785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wwii","category-wwii-drawings","category-wwii-poems","tag-1940s","tag-215th-battalion","tag-art","tag-poetry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}