12/03/2011

Christopher Logue, Author of All Day Pemanent Red, Dies

Logue was a pacifist who marched with CND and joined Bertrand Russell's Committee of 100 which earned him a second spell in prison. In the 1950s he lived in Paris and was friends with writers Alexander Trocchi and Samuel Beckett. He was married to the biographer Rosemary Hill.
Then of a stadium when many boards 
are raised And many faces change to one vast face. 
So, where there were so many masks, 
Now one Greek mask glittered from strip to ridge. 
 Already swift Boy Lutie took Prince Hector's nod 
And fired his whip that right and left 
Signalled to Ilium's wheels to fire their own, 
And to the Wall-wide nodding plumes of Trojan infantry— 
 Flutes! Flutes! 
Screeching above the grave percussion of their feet 
Shouting how they will force the savage Greeks 
Back up the slope over the ridge, downplain 
And slaughter them beside their ships. 

No comments:

Post a Comment