The Ancient Heroes and the Bomber Pilot
With nothing to brag about but the size of their hearts, Tearing boar-flesh and swilling ale, A fermenting of huge-chested braggarts. Got nowhere by sitting still To hear some timorous poet enlarge heroisms, To suffer their veins stiffle and swell – Soon, far easier, imagination all flames, In the white orbit of a sword, Their chariot-wheels tumbling the necks of screams, In a glory of hair and beard, They thinned down their fat fulsome blood in war, Replenish both bed and board, Making their own good news, restuffing their dear Fame with fresh sacks-full of heads, Roaring, burdened, back over the wet moor. When archaeologists dig their remainder out – Bits of bone, rust – The grandeur of their wars humbles my thought. Even though I can boast The enemy capital will jump to a fume At a turn of my wrist And the huge earth be shaken in its frame – I am pale. When I imagine one of those warriors in the room And hear his heart-beat burl The centuries are a stopped clock; my heart Is cold and small.
The Ancient Heroes and the Bomber Pilot - meaning Summary
Power Without Physical Courage
The poem contrasts ancient warriors, who risked their bodies for fame and survival, with a modern bomber pilot whose power is vast but impersonal. The speaker can destroy an enemy city with a small action, yet feels diminished when imagining an old fighter's physical courage. Hughes questions whether technological warfare produces the same kind of heroism as hand-to-hand combat.
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