![\"brad_ike_patton\"](\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/04\/brad_ike_patton.jpg\")
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By Randy Brown<\/strong><\/em> Even casual consumers of military history \u2014 at least, those familiar with actor\u00a0George C. Scott<\/a>\u2018s portrayal of\u00a0Patton\u00a0in the\u00a01971 movie<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 suspect the historical general may have more than occasionally written poetry. In an early scene set in World War II North Africa \u2014 the original script was written by a young\u00a0Francis Ford Coppola<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 Lt. Gen. George S.\u00a0Patton\u00a0briefly diverts his command car to an ancient battlefield he senses from a past incarnation.\u00a0Patton\u00a0then\u00a0delivers this memorable roadside monologue<\/a>\u00a0to Maj. Gen.\u00a0Omar Bradley<\/a>, played by\u00a0Karl Malden<\/a>:<\/p>\n You don\u2019t believe me, do you, Brad? You know what the poet said:<\/p>\n Through the travail of ages,<\/em> As if through a glass, and darkly<\/em> Do you know who the poet was? The movie dialogue takes two separate stanzas \u2014 the first and twenty-second \u2014 from\u00a0Patton\u2019s longest poem, \u201cThrough the Glass Darkly\u201d (1922). The excerpted poem also evokes 1 Corinthians 13:11 (\u201cFor now we see through a glass, darkly\u2026\u201d). In the unabridged work,\u00a0Patton\u00a0describes himself as being present at various points in history, from the crucifixion of Christ and ancient Rome, to the\u00a0Battle of Cr\u00e9cy<\/a>\u00a0(1346), to the\u00a0Battle of Waterloo<\/a>\u00a0(1815).<\/p>\n Scholar Carmine A. Prioli (Lines of Fire<\/i>, 1991) documents more than 80 poems written by\u00a0Patton between the years 1903 and 1945. According to biographer Carlo D\u2019Este (Patton: A Genius for War<\/i><\/a>, 1996),\u00a0Patton\u00a0was a dedicated practitioner of poetry, starting in his first years at Virginia Military Institute and West Point.\u00a0Patton\u00a0was not a strong student overall \u2014 in retrospect, he likely suffered undiagnosed dyslexia, which contributed to his academic difficulties \u2014 but he excelled in history. He also regarded the memorization of verse to be a worthy mental exercise, and its recitation a welcome distraction for himself and others.<\/p>\n Particularly during times of separation from his beloved girlfriend Beatrice \u2014 later his wife \u2014 or convalescing in hospital from sports or war injuries,\u00a0Patton\u00a0found writing poetry a source of inspiration, entertainment, and solace.\u00a0Patton\u00a0also notably used poetry to shape his public persona, tasking Beatrice with submitting works to magazines such as\u00a0Cosmopolitan<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Women\u2019s Home Companion<\/i>. At one time,\u00a0Patton\u00a0reportedly planned to publish some of his poetry during the years between the world wars. In 1943, one of his poems was even set to music and broadcast to soldiers in Europe by the American Expeditionary Radio Station.<\/p>\n For\u00a0Patton, then, the practice of poetry was both tactical and strategic.<\/p>\n The poems collected by Prioli often adhere to some form of iambic form, in stanzas of four lines each. The poems are sometimes amateurish, but are not without merit or appeal. Not surprisingly, Patton\u2019s favorite themes involve soldierly life, battlefield death, and reincarnation.\u00a0Patton\u2019s words could also deliver profane humor, scathing satire, and insights into his geopolitical worldview.<\/p>\n For the profane, one need look no further than\u00a0Patton\u2019s \u201cThe Turds of the Scouts,\u201d the title of which alone is certain to amuse horse soldiers and latrine humorists of all eras. (Oft given to quoting Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae\u2019s World War I poem\u00a0\u201cIn Flanders Fields,\u201d<\/a>\u00a021st century cavalry troopers are some of the soldiers most likely to maintain an appreciation of military poetry.)\u00a0Patton achieves something akin to cowboy poetry with lines such as:<\/p>\n For days and weeks he\u2019d ridden hard The\u00a0rest of the poem<\/a>\u00a0is, perhaps, best left to off-hours Internet searches.\u00a0Patton\u2019s father, a California attorney, thought it downright vulgar, and refused to share it with family. Still, anyone who has partaken of too many MRE crackers, or ridden too long on convoy, can empathize with\u00a0Patton\u2019s scatological sentiments. No doubt, a poet of the M-RAP generation will someday deliver an \u201cOde to a Gatorade Bottle.\u201d<\/p>\n On a higher note and satirical purpose,\u00a0Patton\u00a0makes an effective assault on bureaucracy with his poem \u201cREFERENCE: B AND B3c-24614 FILE: INV. FORM A62B-M. Q.\u201d Consider these excerpts:<\/p>\n [\u2026] They had written\u2014\u201dYour directive when effective was defective and<\/p>\n [\u2026] But first he sent a checker, then he sent a checker\u2019s checker Obviously,\u00a0Patton\u00a0had a sense of humor. And could use that humor to direct fire at a satirical target, in order to achieve an objective.<\/p>\n In \u201cAbsolute War\u201d (1944),\u00a0Patton\u00a0offers a critique of the American way of war, as applicable to the 21st century as it was his own:<\/p>\n Now in war we are confronted with conditions which are strange. To avoid such fell disaster, the result of fighting faster, But with sadness and with sorrow we discover to our horror Bringing his philosophy more down to earth,\u00a0Patton\u00a0underscores his thoughts later in the same poem, observing that \u201c[\u2026] in war just as in loving, you must always keep on shoving. \/ Or you\u2019ll never get your just reward.\u201d Like film and history and other human endeavors, poetry is an imperfect mirror.\u00a0Patton\u00a0wasn\u2019t perfect. Neither was his verse.<\/p>\n Patton\u2019s poetry humanizes and complicates our understanding of his persona and of our history, however, enriching it beyond his cinematic ghost. And, in reading it, even if we hear in our heads the graveled growls of actor George C. Scott, we are reminded of universal truths, encountered on battlefields both ancient and modern:<\/p>\n War is repetitious. War is shit. War is bureaucratic.<\/p>\n Randy Brown<\/i><\/a>\u00a0embedded with his former Iowa Army National Guard unit as a civilian journalist in Afghanistan, May-June 2011. He authored the poetry collection<\/i>\u00a0Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire<\/a>\u00a0(Middle West Press, 2015). As \u201cCharlie Sherpa,\u201d he blogs about military culture at\u00a0<\/i>www.redbullrising.com<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n
\nBest Defense poet laureate<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/em>
\n\u201cPatton, you magnificent bastard! I read your verse!\u201d \u2014Charlie Sherpa<\/i><\/p>\n\u00a0\u201cIt was\u00a0here<\/i>. The battlefield was here. The Carthaginians defending the city were attacked by three Roman legions. The Carthaginians were proud and brave but they couldn\u2019t hold. They were massacred. The Arab women stripped them of the tunics and swords, and lances. And the soldiers lay naked in the sun. Two-thousand years ago. I was here.<\/div>\n
\n Midst the pomp and toils of war,<\/em>
\n Have I fought and strove and perished<\/em>
\n Countless times upon a star.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n The age-old strife I see\u2014<\/em>
\n Where I fought in many guises, many names\u2014<\/em>
\n but always me.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nMe.<\/p>\n
\nHe\u2019d eaten many a meal
\nYet every morn he waits in vain
\nSome bowel movement to feel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nIn its ultimate objective\u2014and what\u2019s more
\nNeolithic hieroglyphic is, to us, much more specific
\nThan the drivel you keep dumping at our door.\u201d [\u2026]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nStill nothing was disclosed as being wrong.
\nSo a checker\u2019s checker\u2019s checker came to check the checker\u2019s checker
\nAnd the process was laborious and long.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nIf we accept them we will never win.
\nSince by being realistic, as in mundane combats fistic,
\nWe will get a bloody nose and that\u2019s a sin.<\/p>\n
\nWe resort to fighting carefully and slow.
\nWe fill up terrestrial spaces with secure expensive bases
\nTo keep our tax rate high and death rate low.<\/p>\n
\nThat while we build, the enemy gets set. [\u2026]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n