On War & Peace

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

 

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2021