Veterans Day

human_sacrifice 2On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the most devastating war to ever visit its scourge upon mankind was ended.  Here is a poem by Wilfred Owen, a modern take on Genesis 22,  to remember that day.  Note: Owen was killed in battle on November 7, 1918, seven days before the armistice.

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. Behold,
A ram caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son. .
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

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