"...we stood on the Stockton's screened porch. Lighted windows and buzzing conversation at our backs didn't blot out a full moon above the chapel of Holberg College, or the sound of crickets through a warm and green-odorous dark." (p. 16)
A detailed description appealing to three of the senses.
Robert Anderson thinks that Tom Havig, a thirty-plus year old science teacher, could have served his country better by staying at home during World War II:
"But the crusade had been preached, the wild geese were flying, the widowmaker whistled beyond the safe dull thresholds of Senlac." (ibid.)
Evocative language, recalling Kipling:
What is a woman that you forsake her,
And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,
To go with the old grey Widow-maker?
-copied from here.
Two evocative passages from a single page.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteSo many of Kipling's stories and poems are permanently apt.
Ad astra! Sean
There was a wider range of ages in the American infantry in WWII than ever before or since. The average age now is about 26, 27 -- that's because it's volunteer professionals and they usually do at least 2 four-year hitches.
ReplyDeleteKaor, Mr. Stirling!
ReplyDeleteIncluding even 17 years old lads lying about their age to get into the armed forces, when the minimum age for enlisting was 18. I read somewhere that when Anderson tried to enlist he was rejected because of bad hearing and near sightedness.
WW II was somewhat odd in that respect, there was both massive voluntary enlisting and conscription.
Ad astra! Sean