An Appreciation of "Men in Green" by Australian David
Campbell
It appears on p. 176 of A Phantom Script Nelson 1986.
The poem presents the poet's own account of effecting a change
over of a tour of duty as a pilot in New Guinea during World War II.
He transfers fifteen men in jungle fatigues to the jungle to replace
and collect another fifteen who've done their tour of duty
there.
The poem is presented in a conventional form with eleven verses
of four lines each in abcb rhyme, except the seventh has six for
dramatic effect at the climax of the action. The almost prosaic
language and linear narrative is appropriate to the unromantic job
described. Local and legendary geography, "Dobadura .... Soputa
track" tie it down to a particular time and place too. Campbell uses
similes and metaphors quite effectively in description without them
drawing attention to themselves.
The tension between the awesome scenery, "two white paws of
cloud/Clutched at the shoulders of the pass", "hid the pass in mist"
"the ape-like cloud", and the urgency of his job is well developed.
His effectively suggests the threat and reality of fighting a war in
the sky and the jungle: "a hundred hissing cannon shells", "some on
stretchers lay", "the summer's sun with bullets for their
breast."
I like the poem. It is easy to understand and the personal
reflection it offers is substantial. In one memorable couplet:
"Nature had met them in the night/ And stalked them in the day",
Campbell reminded me of the reality of war and the human costs it
incurs.
G.Smith, August 1996.