On War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Oh yes, it’s a gripping story
Tolstoy’s greatest novel
With a panoramic sweep
From the peace of Saint Petersburg
To mournful Moscow
And the savage Russian landscape
Its ikons, dachas, vodka and champagne
And of Society’s wealth and grandeur
The families, fathers, sons and daughters
The Kuragins and the Rostovs
Political power games and emperors
The Tsar and Napoleon Bonaparte
Empires of the French, the Russian, the Austrian
The grand history of the epic war
Of tired troops and generals
And the bloody battlefields
Of Austerlitz and Borodino
Of love and loss, and longing
Of betrayal and death and honour
Of peaceful Pierre and naïve Natasha
So that’s the who’s who and what’s what
I know because I’ve seen it all on telly
Six glamour-packaged episodes
Edited, summarised and condensed
From over eight hundred pages
It’s bold, magnificent and inspiring
….And one of these days
I really must get round to reading it
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