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Moonlight Sonata

  • 27-08-2010 3:27pm
    #1
    jobee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 549 ✭✭✭


    Moonlight Sonata

    In November 14 1940 500 planes of the the German Luftwaffe bombed Coventry city center.Their code name for this operation was Moonlight Sonata. Edna Viner was an off duty probationary nurse.

    A lovely starry moonlit night,
    With extra incandescent light,
    Parachutes with chandelier flares,
    Edna Viner sits, stares.

    Alighting from a city bus,
    Bemused, blinking, "what’s the fuss"?
    Air raid sirens howled, moaned,
    “I bet it’s Birmingham" she groaned.

    “Not here I hope, it’s my night out,
    My one and only drinking bout”
    Then calling in to see her friend,
    Her leisure time soon to end.

    At once the symphony began,
    Coventry reacts to Hitler’s plan,
    Incendiary bombs clatter down,
    Like Christmas lights all around.

    Buckets of sand douse the flames,
    Ladies help in human chains,
    Searchlights probed the sky around,
    Fire engine's bells resound.

    The sharp bark of Bofor guns,
    The glistening sweat of Coventry’s sons,
    High explosive bombs thud down,
    To shake the heart of this boom town.

    Fire watchers on roof tops high,
    Silhouetted against the sky,
    Buildings seem to leave the ground,
    Bricks, mortar, spewed around.

    The old Cathedral gets it next,
    As if deserved of no respect,
    High explosive bombs come first,
    Then when the lofty steeple bursts.

    Showers of incendiaries fall all round,
    Blackening the very ground,
    Just one great wall of searing fire,
    For those inside a funeral pyre.

    Cov and Warwick's hospital now.
    All the staff survived somehow,
    They worked all night, did their best.
    Still 520 were laid to rest.

    By: John Bishop (UK) Jobee
    Copyright © John Bishop 2004 - All rights reserved


Comments

  • #2
    ejmaztec
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,259 ✭✭✭✭ejmaztec


    jobee wrote: »
    Incendiary bombs clatter down,
    Like Christmas lights all around.

    Sorry, doesn't work for me.


  • #3
    jobee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 549 ✭✭✭jobee


    ejmaztec wrote: »
    Sorry, doesn't work for me.
    Thats because haven't seen the photographs, especially the German shots.


  • #4
    ejmaztec
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,259 ✭✭✭✭ejmaztec


    jobee wrote: »
    Thats because haven't seen the photographs, especially the German shots.

    I was born 10 miles away from Coventry, and have seen many photographs, and have listened to many personal anecdotes of people who were actually there at the time.


  • #5
    Manic Moran
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,831 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Interesting choice of topic for a poem.

    However, I must ask the question as a moderator, 'Why?'

    This is a discussion forum, or at least an information outlay on military matters. What's the point of discussion you wish to start with this thread?
    I was born 10 miles away from Coventry, and have seen many photographs, and have listened to many personal anecdotes of people who were actually there at the time.

    OK, let's not take things personally. There have been plenty of fires started by Christmas lights. Happens every year.

    NTM


  • #6
    jobee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 549 ✭✭✭jobee


    Manic Moran wrote: »
    Interesting choice of topic for a poem.

    However, I must ask the question as a moderator, 'Why?'

    This is a discussion forum, or at least an information outlay on military matters. What's the point of discussion you wish to start with this thread?





    NTM
    It was published in the Coventry Evening Telegraph, no complaints there. Interestingly not one German plane was shot down although
    a squadron of spitfires were stationed at Baginton airport just a few miles out of town. The raid lasted all night. The attack was concerned with military matters. Are you saying bombing attacks are not military matters.


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  • #7
    jobee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 549 ✭✭✭jobee


    ejmaztec wrote: »
    I was born 10 miles away from Coventry, and have seen many photographs, and have listened to many personal anecdotes of people who were actually there at the time.
    Have you seen the German shots, Edna Viners grand daughter was delighted with the poem she sent me a lovely email.
    After publication in the Telegraph.
    I actually watched the raid, i lived in Blackwatch rd behind the General Wolf.
    Those parachute flares were a wonderful site to a boy of my age.


  • #8
    ejmaztec
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,259 ✭✭✭✭ejmaztec


    Manic Moran wrote: »

    OK, let's not take things personally. There have been plenty of fires started by Christmas lights. Happens every year.

    NTM

    OK, I wasn't taking it personally, but I was just trying to steer the OP away from becoming another McGonagall. It was for his own good.:(

    http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/


  • #9
    jobee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 549 ✭✭✭jobee


    ejmaztec wrote: »
    OK, I wasn't taking it personally, but I was just trying to steer the OP away from becoming another McGonagall. It was for his own good.:(

    http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/

    I thought what was good enough for the Cov Evening Telegraph was good enough for this site.

    Have you seen the German shots, Edna Viners grand daughter was delighted with the poem she sent me a lovely email.
    After publication in the Telegraph.
    I actually watched the raid, i lived in Blackwatch rd behind the General Wolf.
    Those parachute flares were a wonderful site to a boy of my age.


  • #10
    jobee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 549 ✭✭✭jobee


    ejmaztec wrote: »
    OK, I wasn't taking it personally, but I was just trying to steer the OP away from becoming another McGonagall. It was for his own good.:(

    http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/[

    /QUOTE]
    Are you an expert on poetry, I am all for constructive criticism.
    Even though I am a qualified teacher of humanities. Retired.

    There are so many different types of poetry, personally I'm not keen on prose.


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