Guillaume Apollinaire
Here I am, free and proud among my companions
The alarm has rung and in the early morning I greet
The famous Nancy girl whom I never knew
Did you know the whore Nancy
who gave the whole artillery the vxxxxx
the artillery didn’t notice that she had a [ass]
[boot] pain
Holy God what a look Holy God what a look while
night falls
The 3 servants arm in arm fell asleep
on the forecarriage
And the driver by mount by flight on the carrier
At a walk, a trot or a gallop I drive the cannon
The officer’s arm is my polar star
It’s raining my coat is soaked and I sometimes wipe
my face
With the towel-dishcloth that is in the bag of the
under-verge
Here are infantrymen with heavy steps and muddy feet
The rain pricks them with its needles the bag follows them
[Notre-Dame]
memories of Paris before the war they will be much sweeter
after the victory
[Eiffel Tower]
hello world of which I am the eloquent tongue that her mouth oh Paris shoots
and will always shoot at the Germans
[shells]
Marching infantrymen
clods of earth
You are the power
Of the soil that made you
And it is the soil that goes
When you advance
An officer gallops past
Like a blue angel in the gray rain
A wounded man walks smoking a pipe
The hare runs away and here is a stream that I love
And this young woman greets us carters
Victory stands after our jugulars
And calculates the angular measurements for our cannons
Our salvos our bursts are her cries of joy
Her flowers are our shells with marvelous sheaves
Her thoughts are gathered in the glorious trenches
I hear the bird singing the beautiful bird of prey
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Analysis (AI Assisted)
This war poem strikes with a tone that mixes personal reflection, social commentary, and the harsh realities of war. The narrator presents themselves as a soldier, caught between nostalgia for a time before the war and the harshness of their current experience. The opening lines, “Here I am, free and proud among my companions,” carry a sense of duty, camaraderie, and perhaps even youthful bravado. But this pride is quickly juxtaposed by the grim and sometimes absurd reflections on the war.
The reference to “the famous Nancy girl” introduces an element of longing or desire, highlighting the personal relationships and distractions that soldiers might recall in the midst of conflict. The mention of Nancy, combined with the crude and sexual undertones (“whore Nancy”), reflects how wartime experiences were often tied to fleeting pleasures or distractions from the grimness of battle. The soldier’s tone here is detached and almost nonchalant, demonstrating how war, in its brutality, distorts human relationships and reduces them to something base, even trivial.
The mention of the artillery not noticing “she had a [ass] / [boot] pain” speaks to the soldiers’ numbness or disconnection from the violence and suffering around them. This can be interpreted as a metaphor for the soldiers themselves—disconnected from the full reality of their actions or from any deeper emotional connection to the people and events around them.
The line “Holy God what a look while night falls” seems to shift tone, suggesting a moment of reflection or shock, as though the speaker is acknowledging the overwhelming presence of war. The repetition of “Holy God” underscores the impact of what is happening and evokes a sense of helplessness in the face of it.
Later in the poem, the line “memories of Paris before the war they will be much sweeter / after the victory” expresses a longing for the past, a pre-war world that seems more innocent and full of life. The victory, though, comes with the cost of these memories—the transformation of them into something bittersweet. This passage captures how war distorts perceptions of time and memory, turning them into something idealized but distant.
The soldier’s declaration, “hello world of which I am the eloquent tongue,” speaks to a sense of ownership or pride in their role in the war, yet there is an undercurrent of confusion or disillusionment. The “eloquent tongue” could be seen as a metaphor for how soldiers are asked to articulate the justification for war, but in reality, their voices are drowned out by the machinery of violence.
The poem closes with the image of a “bird of prey,” which could symbolize the soldiers themselves—victims of the war, but also predators in a sense. The bird’s song is beautiful, yet it is a predator’s song, hinting at the duality of life in war: beauty and destruction coexisting.
Overall, the poem captures the disjointed nature of war, where moments of beauty, nostalgia, and human connection are tangled with crude realities, disillusionment, and violence. It challenges the reader to reflect on how war warps relationships, identities, and memories, leaving behind a fractured sense of self and a distorted world.