{"id":289,"date":"2014-06-18T22:44:06","date_gmt":"2014-06-18T22:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/?post_type=chapter&p=289"},"modified":"2014-09-26T18:57:37","modified_gmt":"2014-09-26T18:57:37","slug":"channel-firing","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/chapter\/channel-firing\/","title":{"raw":"Channel Firing","rendered":"Channel Firing"},"content":{"raw":"[footnote]The title refers to gunnery practice in the English Channel in April 1914. World War I began on August 4, 1914.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nThat night your great guns, unawares,\r\nShook all our coffins as we lay,\r\nAnd broke the chancel[footnote]Part of the church nearest the altar.[\/footnote]\u00a0window-squares,\r\nWe thought it was the Judgment-day\r\n\r\nAnd sat upright. While drearisome\r\nArose the howl of wakened hounds:\r\nThe mouse let fall the altar-crumb,\r\nThe worms drew back into the mounds,\r\n\r\nThe glebe[footnote]A portion of land assigned to a clergyman as part of his benefice.[\/footnote]\u00a0cow drooled. Till God called, \u201cNo;\r\nIt\u2019s gunnery practice out at sea\r\nJust as before you went below;\r\nThe world is as it used to be:\r\n\r\n\u201cAll nations striving strong to make\r\nRed war yet redder. Mad as hatters\r\nThey do no more for Christ\u00e9s sake\r\nThan you who are helpless in such matters.\r\n\r\n\u201cThat this is not the judgment-hour\r\nFor some of them\u2019s a blessed thing,\r\nFor if it were they\u2019d have to scour\r\nHell\u2019s floor for so much threatening....\r\n\r\n\u201cHa, ha. It will be warmer when\r\nI blow the trumpet (if indeed\r\nI ever do; for you are men,\r\nAnd rest eternal sorely need).\u201d\r\n\r\nSo down we lay again. \u201cI wonder,\r\nWill the world ever saner be,\u201d\r\nSaid one, \u201cthan when He sent us under\r\nIn our indifferent century!\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd many a skeleton shook his head.\r\n\u201cInstead of preaching forty year,\u201d\r\nMy neighbour Parson Thirdly said,\r\n\u201cI wish I had stuck to pipes and beer.\u201d\r\n\r\nAgain the guns disturbed the hour,\r\nRoaring their readiness to avenge,\r\nAs far inland as Stourton Tower[footnote]King Alfred\u2019s Tower was built near Stourton in the county of Wiltshire, to celebrate a victory by the Saxon, King Alfred, over the Danes in AD 878. Camelot was the legendary site of King Arthur\u2019s court, and Stonehenge is the site of the prehistoric stone circle at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain.[\/footnote],\r\nAnd Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.\r\n\r\n\u2014 1914","rendered":"

[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

That night your great guns, unawares,
\nShook all our coffins as we lay,
\nAnd broke the chancel[2]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0window-squares,
\nWe thought it was the Judgment-day<\/p>\n

And sat upright. While drearisome
\nArose the howl of wakened hounds:
\nThe mouse let fall the altar-crumb,
\nThe worms drew back into the mounds,<\/p>\n

The glebe[3]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0cow drooled. Till God called, \u201cNo;
\nIt\u2019s gunnery practice out at sea
\nJust as before you went below;
\nThe world is as it used to be:<\/p>\n

\u201cAll nations striving strong to make
\nRed war yet redder. Mad as hatters
\nThey do no more for Christ\u00e9s sake
\nThan you who are helpless in such matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat this is not the judgment-hour
\nFor some of them\u2019s a blessed thing,
\nFor if it were they\u2019d have to scour
\nHell\u2019s floor for so much threatening….<\/p>\n

\u201cHa, ha. It will be warmer when
\nI blow the trumpet (if indeed
\nI ever do; for you are men,
\nAnd rest eternal sorely need).\u201d<\/p>\n

So down we lay again. \u201cI wonder,
\nWill the world ever saner be,\u201d
\nSaid one, \u201cthan when He sent us under
\nIn our indifferent century!\u201d<\/p>\n

And many a skeleton shook his head.
\n\u201cInstead of preaching forty year,\u201d
\nMy neighbour Parson Thirdly said,
\n\u201cI wish I had stuck to pipes and beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again the guns disturbed the hour,
\nRoaring their readiness to avenge,
\nAs far inland as Stourton Tower[4]<\/sup><\/a>,
\nAnd Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.<\/p>\n

\u2014 1914<\/p>\n

  1. The title refers to gunnery practice in the English Channel in April 1914. World War I began on August 4, 1914. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  2. Part of the church nearest the altar. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  3. A portion of land assigned to a clergyman as part of his benefice. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  4. King Alfred\u2019s Tower was built near Stourton in the county of Wiltshire, to celebrate a victory by the Saxon, King Alfred, over the Danes in AD 878. Camelot was the legendary site of King Arthur\u2019s court, and Stonehenge is the site of the prehistoric stone circle at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. ↵<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"menu_order":13,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["thomas-hardy"],"pb_section_license":"public-domain"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[53],"license":[78],"class_list":["post-289","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-thomas-hardy","license-public-domain"],"part":265,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1345,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/289\/revisions\/1345"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/265"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/289\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}