iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

2 posts

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 18/09/2026

The bell that tolls my syllables can tell An underwater tale, clang how there fell Suddenly out of a surface shouting world Into dumb calm doomed children… —George Sutherland Fraser (1915–1980), “S.S. City of Benares (Drowned refugee children, 1940)” #poem #poetry #WarPoetry #WW2

George Sutherland Fraser
S.S. City of Benares
(Drowned refugee children, 1940)

The bell that tolls my syllables can tell
An underwater tale, clang how there fell
Suddenly out of a surface shouting world
Into dumb calm doomed children, and there curled
(Currents’ sick fingers whispering at their hair)
Round them a coiling clutch, was our despair.
Sea’s soft sad pressure, like the sprawl of love,
Darkly spreadeagled, so they could not move,
The wide wet mouth was heavy, they would choke,
Till in that cold confusion pity spoke:
“This is a nightmare and one is asleep.
This is a dream, my brave one, do not weep,
Often may drown in dreams and not be dead:
Such weight is mother leaning on your bed.”

But having thought of this to cheat my pain,
That woe and wonder harrows me again,
Fat clouds seem bulked like whales, while through the green
Grave tons of twilight, in a submarine
Solidity of air like sea I move,
Pressure of horror how our hate hurts love.
Deeper than grief can plummet, mercy lies,
But not so deep as trust in children’s eyes,
Justice is high in heaven, but more high
Blood of the innocent shall smear the sky—
Or think that red the flame of seraph wings,
See stained-glass heaven, where each darling sings
In God’s dark luminous world of green and gold
As lovely as death’s waters, but less cold:
Think what you will, but like the crisping leaf
In whipped October, crack your thoughts to grief.
In the drenched valley, whimpering and cold,
The small ghosts flicker, whisper, unconsoled.

3155

PasqGHOUneL 🦇🎃👻 @pasquinel.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

BAND OF BROTHERS premiered on HBO 25 years ago today (on Sept 9th, 2001) #Television #HBO #History #WW2 #OTD #TVSky #BandofBrothers #2000s #Nostalgia

040