Lessons from London

Yesterday in class, we were given a poem called "As I Walked Out One Evening" by W. H. Auden. We ran out of time in class to discuss it as a group, but I read it on my own because it seemed interesting to me and relevant to our trip. He simply describes his walk through London one evening and it was really cool to me to be able to picture the things he describes because I have seen them myself. He states he "heard a lover sing under an arch of the railway" and I could picture the little old man I saw playing his accordion and singing by the Thames River, or the guy I saw playing his guitar and singing in the underground train station. That is one thing I have noticed about London, more than many other cities I have been to. A lot of people here want to express themselves. I can't even count how many times I have seen someone just sitting on the sidewalk singing and playing music, and they seem as happy as they can be, like they don't have a care in the world. He also explains how after he heard the man singing, "all the clocks in the city began to whirr and chime." As I read this I could picture Big Ben, something I thought I would never get to see in person. For some reason, I also thought of the beautiful bells that were ringing outside of St. Paul's Cathedral the Sunday we went to church there. I have loved being able to see and experience such a magical city that I thought I would only ever read about. And I love that now when I read about it, I am flooded with images of different places I have visited in London. 

We also discussed a poem called "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owens. It discusses people fighting and dying for their country in the military. At the end of the poem it says "My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. This phrase basically means that war is glorious and honorable. When you really think about it, war is honorable but it is not glorious. It's gruesome and tough and not at all glorious. I think one of the main meanings of this poem is to point to perspective. Although people try to make it seem like it is glorious and wonderful, in reality in many ways it's not. In class we discussed how that should be one of the biggest things we have gained from this trip, perspective. I think I have absolutely gained that. I have seen that although London is a beautiful city with so many treasures, I have learned to be thankful for where I live because I have many things that they don't have here. Although I have loved spending so much time in this wonderful place, I have gained perspective on so many things and am thankful to go back to the small town of Ruston.