The soldier and the orphan
An old man crossed the road.
He was too weak and ill.
And shabby was his coat;
He had an iron will.
His eyes were shrewd and steady,
He had a square jaw.
With him was little lady:
She carried book of law.
They wanted a confession,
Suppressing their cries,
A freedom declaration,
But heard tremendous lies.
And after a snub dispute
Believe in truth was dead.
They have forgotten goodness,
Achievements and respect.
- Ann Golubeva's blog
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Interesting poem...
oldaspirationsneverdie...7
This poem contains a very interesting story, however I have perhaps
missed some of the meaning! Yet, it is so interesting and the line:
"Believe in truth was dead."! Now this line seems to be my key
to understanding this very "alluring" write: I seem to think that
the man now ill and very weaK crossed a symbolic road and has
lossed his belief in "goodness, achievements and respect"! I can
imagine that age and illness could do that to many people!
The title which mentions an orphan and a soldier, I
am thinking the soldier is the old man and the orphan is the
lady carrying a book of law~! Perhaps tradition is dying with
the old man as truth, achievements and respect, represent
law, is dying. The soldier, leaving the
system an orphan, full of "tremendous lies"! Just a quick
interpretation, jumps into this poet's mind, as I've read this
piece a few times, searching for meaning! I'm sure this
piece is very symbolic! I thank you for sharing this
poem with your audience! It is just great reading!
This piece contains great word choices and vivid imagery!
Please drop by my site to review a poem:
signed: oldaspiratinsneverdie...
"
The sense of the verse
It is an interesting vision of my verse (and you are close to the real meaning). To tell you the truth, I assumed something more simple (but even my sister didn't understand when I translated her it what it was about).The soldier and the orphan symbolize socially dependent groups of the population. They should be supported by the state, but they have to prove the real importance of such help. And their attempt failed. It's not fair (believe in truth was dead). So they have to forget about goodness of people, who have the power to change their life, their achievements and peoples' and self respect. Nobody cares about them.
Maybe this poem seems very strange, yes, there are 2 reasons:
1) English is not my native language and my mentality is not the same like englishmen or americans (or other people for whom English is native) have. I've just wrote what I thought (in russian) in English.
2) The social situation in my country. Its' not very good. It's much better then, for example, 15 years ago... but I see soldiers (without legs or arms) singing in the trains, asking some money to buy medicine and orphans who try to collect all the documents to prove that they are also people, who need the place to live after they are brought up. I wish in your country the situation is not the same.
P.S If you did't understand any of my works, just write, I'll try to explain.