Walter Meyer wrote:

>The only peace the Boys' Choir, Chorus and Soprano, can hold out for
>us is the peace of the grave.

That may be what Britten intended to convey, but I would like to think
that the final message of this towering work is not so pessimistic as that.
I hear it a little differently: WW I (and by extension, all wars, to
Britten) are started by immoral political leaders, but the actual soldiers,
if they were given the chance, could become friends because they share the
actual experience of fighting.

   "Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels
   I would go up and wash them from sweet wells.
   Even from wells we sunk too deep for war,
   Even the sweetest wells that ever were."

Owen's poem "Strange Meeting" suggests to me the idea that somehow,
the experience of war itself can be a source of a stronger spirit.  One
should also remember that the poem begins "It seemed that out of battle
I escaped," so that this meeting is not between two dead soldiers, but
an imagined encounter between a still living soldier and an enemy he
had killed.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]