"This tale shall the good man tell his son."

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/

My sister, Maureen, has re-posted her Memorial Day piece from 2009.

Comments

[William R. Cumming]

Thanks Maureen! Who could not be stirred by those famous words. I met a doughboy once. I was 16 he was 74. My Grandmother's younger brother. He handed me a small bronze compass and said its yours. He said it was the most important survival item on the Western Front. I asked in my ignorance why? He said stories of those compasses abounded but all knew that if shell blast missed them but perhaps they were knocked cold and awoke in a shell hole and lived to crawl to the top and did not drown in the water often over your head at the bottom then when you looked around there was no East or West or North or South. It was all the same and only the compass could guide you safely back to your own lines. May we all have our own special compass to guide US and those we love home this Memorial Day 2012. Thanks to all that help US live today but gave their last full measure or at least their best so we could do so.

[Alba Etie]

Amen- thank you veterans .

[William R. Cumming]

I should have mention the Doughboy was my Cumming Grandmother's "little" brother Spencer who was 74 at the time. Birth order effects each of our lifetimes.

[Maureen Lang]

You're quite welcome, William.

The accompanying photo from Branagh's film was deliberately chosen because it depicts the aftermath of the Battle of Agincourt rather than Henry giving the St. Crispin's Day speech.

May all SST/TA commenters, posters, & readers have a pleasant Memorial Day weekend spent in the company of family & friends.

[oofda]

And here is the Sir Lawrence Olvier version of Shakespeare's Henry V Act IV, Scene III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jXFnQUU7yg

[Nancy K]

Maureen, thank you for the Branagh clip, my husband and I will be watching the entire movie this afternoon. Thank you to all the veterans who have given so much for our safety. I truly wish there were a special compass to bring them all home safely.

[Maureen Lang]

The marvelous Olivier version- thanks for that link so all may see it, oofda.

Here's a comment I made in the thread for the original 2009 Memorial Day post:

The finest live version of the St. Crispin's Day speech I've even been privileged to see was given by a young actor in a production of "Henry V" at Allan Hancock Junior College in Santa Maria CA 35 years ago. Branagh's film is a joy to watch, his delivery of this famous monolog indeed rousing, but that young man's forceful, poignant, unabashedly sincere moment on stage is the one I really wish I had a link for this Memorial Day.