Naming Of Parts Comments

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow---Three situations are contrasted with Nature being serene while preparing soldier's mind revolves around his uncertain and turbulent future.

Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards, For today we have the naming of parts. ~ beautiful

I remember this from Form IV English lessons at grammar school, mid 60s.

This poem has been in my mind for about 40 years sitting listening to our teacher explaining how the soldier preparing for was just a normal young man who loved nature but was being prepared to go to war. So moving.

I was never one for poetry. I liked November and Tiger tiger, but not much else.However in Asa Briggs's book on Bletchly Park. Secrer Days. The Naming of Parts.is mentioned. Something we had to read(no pun intended) whilst starting to learn about Bren guns at the commencement of National Service in 1958.

This is one of those singular poems that once heard/read you never forget. Brilliant, and Reed's name lives by it. Thanks- -

Nobody has mentioned the sexual Innuendo. I can remember being very shocked when our English teache

I remember reading this poem while at school over 50 years ago; it struck a cord and I've never forgotten it.

used to nice effect on a recent episode of endeavour, spoken by roger allam

any one who has been in the infantry will recognise thescene.The men have to be occupied at all times, so drills and are repeated time after time.This is stuff he knows off by heart, so in the warmth of the garden, somewhere behind the lines, his mind wanders..we, ve all been there

What a horrible reading of a beautiful poem! So stiff, robotic, unfeeling... and devoid of understanding (Punctuation marks, by the way, function the same way in this poem as it does elsewhere; line breaks are NOT punctuation.)

Henry Wow I enjoyed your poem

They call is easing the Spring, shoud be, They call it easing the Spring

i remember my pottery class

A handful of poets are remembered mainly because of one single, perfect poem. It's too simple to require much comment, but perfectly contrasts the boredom and meaninglessness of much that is everyday life - in this case basic military training - with the wonders of nature and the imagination. Usually - as here - the former wins. In my Top 50.

This is a beautiful war poem in which the cruelty of war in the foreground comes in contrast with the beauty and fragility of nature in the background. It depicts while the nature is reviving and grolifying in spring, humanbeing is thinking of nothing but killing and destructing life which is really shameful. And in my opinion, the bigger tragedy is when you realize that this poem does not just belong to World War II, the time in which the poem is written. Yet you see the same blood thirstiness in man nowadays everywhere in the world. But its form has changed a little bit and no more. By the way, this poem is a perfect example for juxtaposition.

I remember hearing Reed reading this poem, and it was in the same voice throughout; he is recounting the instruction he had learned by heart as part of the day's events.

I can see why you'd feel that, Francois, but the omission of italics or inverted commas here was very deliberate on Reed's part, and I feel it does highlight the unsettling sense of where the boundaries between 'nature' and 'culture' are to be drawn.Also, I recall hearing Reed say that when the poem is recited he intended that it should be without any change in the speaking voice to signal difference of character.

This peom is a dialogue between a recruit and an instructor. Utterances of one or the other should be italicised to make this more apparent.