WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Poetry Fix: Little Brother
Episode Date: March 29, 2025Today, Erika Kyba reads Robert W. Service's darkly enthralling "Little Brother." Together, we explore the truth of the poet's bleak vision, as well as looking for avenues of hope. ...
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Welcome to the Poetry Fix on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.
I'm your host, Erica Kaiba, bringing you your weekly fix of poetry from across time.
Today we're reading Robert W. Service's little brother.
This is a deeply apocalyptic poem, spoken from the perspective of a dying man who looks with foreboding
on a world that may well draw to a close soon.
Service was a poet who lived through both World War.
which may well inform his dark perspectives on the, quote,
battles read by land and sea that he describes.
The poem contains strong echoes to biblical apocalypse,
warning future generations of the, quote, wrath to come.
Just as Christ warns that there will be rumors of wars before the end times,
service warns that rumors of world war are rife.
He also prophesies that Armageddon draweth near.
Armageddon traditionally referring to Revelation 20 when the nations gather together for battle.
The poem reads, as a man's desperate deathbed warning, as he declares that his corpse will soon be cold and his lips dumb.
His continual invocation of brother, brother, lends a sense of desperation to his deathbed message as the life slips from him.
Interestingly, service urges his little brother to heed the warning signs of doom if he,
his carcass he would save.
Scripture warns that whoever seeks to save his life will lose it,
but service is pessimistic to the point where he doesn't even believe there is a life
to save, only a carcass.
Outside of the Christian dispensation, things look bleak indeed.
Rather than bringing about utopia, human powers have conspired to bring about their own destruction.
The poem leaves us with the image of coming wrath for this world.
The only possible solution to despair, perhaps, is to turn our gaze higher.
With all that said, let's dive in.
Little Brother by Robert W. Service.
Wars have been, and wars will be, till the human race is run.
Battles red by land and sea.
Never peace beneath the sun.
I am old, and little care.
I'll be cold,
My lips be dumb.
Brother mine, beware, beware, evil looms the wrath to come.
Eastern skies are dark with strife.
Western lands are stark with fear.
Rumors of world war are rife.
Armageddon draweth near.
If your carcass you would save, hear, oh hear the dreadful drum.
Fly to forest, cower in cave.
Brother, heed the wrath to come.
Brother, you were born too late.
Human life is but a breath.
Men delve deep, where darkly wait, sinister the seeds of death.
There's no moment to delay.
Sorrowing, the stars are blind.
Little brother, how I pray you may sanctuary find.
Peoples of the world succumb.
Fly, poor fools, the wrath to come.
You've been listening to the poetry fix.
with Erica Kaiba.
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Join me next week,
and we'll be reading
George Herbert's Love One.