They bombed our Chippy

[Tiger the Lion]

Paul,

I've little idea what this means. I understand parts. The term "Chippy" has enough disparate definitions that without context it seems very ambiguous, of course it could also just be a British thing that I don't get. As Billy has already pointed the German/British warfare(which could be described as "Chippy", and a similar way like football) but especially the line "On this one uncontested inch" as it was a war of inches in trench warfare, especially in WWI. The second stanza I have no clue, unless it is a metaphor for warfare (football=warfare, there are certainly a lot of common terms between the two). In S3 they only thing that could pass would be death, as the painted door jamb refers to the Jewish passover, however I don't really get how people who live in glass houses, and who should not throw stones (metaphorical or otherwise) connects with this, or how either connect with the rest of the poem. I'm assuming, and this is much more assuming than I like to do, that the "Grace" refrain refers to the quote "...but for the Grace of God, there go I", that is to say it is God's grace that keeps us from getting what justice actually demands. Which in this case seems to mean down the path of death, or at least what I infer that seems most likely.

So for me at least, this poem fails, as I have many pieces of the puzzle but no way to interlock them. It may not be true, but to me it seems there is a fair amount of obfuscation (primarily by omission) that does not benefit the clarity or understanding of the piece.

Poetry is to make difficult ideas clear, not to make clear ideas difficult. To me there is more of the latter, and less of the first. It really matters not how clever one crafts one's words, or the deft touch in the use of metaphor, if no one cannot understand what is being said. That being said, this is a very clever poem that makes no sense.


Dale

Thank you Erthona. These are the kind of comments I am taking to the bank. Your dry observations are bang on, not just about this poem, but my writing tendencies in general. Billy's notes too. It's the reason I'm here. Thanks, - Paul