Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Poem ~ Joan of Arc - A German Ally - Wednesday, 17 February 1915


Source: File: Fontaine Jeanne d’Arc – Longwy 1900.jpg, 2015.e-monumen.net. [online] Available at:<http://e-monumen.net/patrimoine-monumental/fontaine-jeanne-darc-longwy> [Accessed: 17 February 2015].

Within the Journal, a Parisian publication,
Came discussion of German occupation -
Holding the region of a Lorraine commune.
Here Longwy's  people - the Longoviciens,
Stated their survival was owed to a statue.

Joan of Arc, an icon of French bravery,
Had already stood for years - a stone effigy
Before the entrance to the Longwy
Church's entrance, raised upon a plinth;
Under her fixed look the town succumbed.

The stone carved woman, in her armour,
Stood to hold aloft a flag on her shoulder -
Her long, sharp sword hanging by her side.
Below her feet a lion offered drinking water;
She stood there, resistant to bombardment.

The blessed maiden of Lorraine - Saint
Joan of Orleans - then held by the Longwy
People as their proof of divine protection.
In discouragement of this beliefs definition
The Germans engraved her pedestal.

The words were to rework the legend
In taking the Spirit of the Orleans Maid
Trying to disperse her medieval heroism
Into the present, by suggested defection

''The Maid of Orleans was always
The enemy of the English. The French
Are today fighting by the side of the
English, hence Joan of Arc cannot
Be with the French, she is with us.''

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. New German Claim - 'Our Ally Joan of Arc'. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 17 Feb. P.10. Col.3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11411744/Daily-Telegraph-February-17-1915.html [Accessed: 17 February 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 17 February 2015). 



#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Longwy

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