Captives Poem by Ernest Hemingway

Captives

Rating: 3.1


Some came in chains
Unrepentant but tired.
Too tired but to stumble.
Thinking and hating were finished
Thinking and fighting were finished
Retreating and hoping were finished.
Cures thus a long campaign,
Making death easy.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Paul Smith 05 December 2013

He needed so few words.

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* Sunprincess * 21 July 2014

............this is a dramatic poem.....and heart breaking imagery...

2 1 Reply
Sandra Feldman 28 February 2016

A strange poet is he, is he Better his prose than his poetry.

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Ernest Hemingway remains a "Member" of PoemHunter and his poem is ranked#51. Although I have at least them mails requesting to correct this mistake, PoemHunter has done nothiIng. Thank you PoemHunter

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Ernest Hemingway is a "member" of PoemHunter and this marvellous poem of his is ranked @ #51 in Best Poems Of MEMBERS". Interesting. Very very interesting.

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Nicole Settimi 09 February 2019

'Some came in chains' 'Retreating and hoping were finished.' 'Cures thus a long campaign, Making death easy.' - I think I enjoy Hemingway because he's as gloomy and down-trodden as me, in his writes. Xx NDS

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Susan Williams 28 February 2016

Through the verses of this poem, the reader could certainly tell that Hemingway thought that war was a mega-mistake and a meaningless waste of lives. The dead soldiers were both Fallen Heroes and Slaughtered Sheep, victims of manifest evil. The survivors were lucky to get out alive but they suffered Irreparable Damage emotionally and psychically if not physically. Alienated, the soldiers felt they were sacrificed by their country. Hemingway totally believed in this quote from Kipling- If any question why we died, tell them, because our fathers lied As Hemingway writes in A FAREWELL TO ARMS- - I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it….Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure that it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. I had never thought Hemingway poetic or a writer of poems- -I was so wrong. His novels have the best poetry ever written in their sentences and his poems are the tip of his novels' icebergs.

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Ratnakar Mandlik 28 February 2016

Captivating captives and their categories versified. Thanks for sharing.

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