The Persian Version by Robert Graves
"The Persian Version" by Robert Graves is a poem that critiques the perception of historical events, specifically the Battle of Marathon, from a Persian viewpoint. While commonly celebrated in European history as a pivotal struggle for democracy against tyranny, Graves presents Marathon as a minor encounter, undermining its legendary status. Through this lens, he critiques the tendency of governments to manipulate narratives of war to claim victories, no matter how trivial or inconsequential the events may be. The poem employs irony and satire to convey the futility of warfare and the absurdity of glorifying conflict, drawing parallels to Graves's experiences during World War I. He highlights the disconnect between the glorified accounts presented to the public and the harsh realities faced by soldiers. By framing Marathon as merely "a reconnaissance in force," Graves challenges the traditional heroic narrative, suggesting that the truth of such battles is often obscured. Ultimately, "The Persian Version" serves as a poignant commentary on the nature of war, the distortion of historical truths, and the often bitter consequences of such fabrications.
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The Persian Version by Robert Graves
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1945 (collected in The Complete Poems in One Volume, 2000)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
Graves admitted that “at times the satiric left hand of poetry displaces the lyric right hand,” and “The Persian Version” is a poem written with his left hand but one that also contains a hint of the real pain and suffering he endured in World War I, when so many pointless and useless Allied defeats and deaths were reported to the gullible public as great victories or examples of British fortitude. As he showed in Goodbye to All That, Graves understood that the German public had been fed the same lies. Why should it have been different in ancient times?
This is the premise for “The Persian Version,” where the famous battle of Marathon is put into its true—that is, Persian—perspective. For European history, Marathon was the first and perhaps greatest struggle of democracy against tyranny, the prototype of all subsequent battles for freedom. For the Persians, Graves’s poem says, the event was only a minor event, a “trifling skirmish” upon which “truth-loving Persians” do not like to dwell; the implication here is that the Greeks have lied about the battle, an accusation often levied in wartime. Using terminology from the military, Graves calls Marathon “a mere reconnaissance in force” and notes, as any well-trained military spokesperson would be sure to add, that the ships involved were only “light craft detached from the main Persian fleet.” In other words, Marathon was essentially a local, almost unnoticed event, not the world-shaking clash of legend.
“The Persian Version” is an ironic, even savage poem, which underscores the futility of warfare and the endless idiocies to which governments will go to wrest some shred of spurious victory from even the most obvious defeat, just as the Persians claim to be the victors in this encounter because, despite the losses and deaths, “All arms combined magnificently together.” That is exactly the sort of bombast Graves read while his friends were being killed beside him in the trenches. In “The Persian Version,” he made it a joke, but it is a joke with a serious, bitter center.
Bibliography
Canary, Robert H. Robert Graves. Boston: Twayne, 1980.
Day, Douglas. Swifter than Reason: The Poetry and Criticism of Robert Graves. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963.
Graves, Richard Perceval. Robert Graves: The Assault Heroic, 1895-1926. New York: Viking Press, 1989.
Graves, Richard Perceval. Robert Graves: The Years with Laura, 1926-1940. New York: Viking Press, 1990.
Kersnowski, Frank L. The Early Poetry of Robert Graves: The Goddess Beckons. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002.
Quinn, Patrick, ed. New Perspectives on Robert Graves. Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 1999.
Seymour-Smith, Martin. Robert Graves: His Life and Work. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982.
Snipes, Katherine. Robert Graves. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1979.
Vickery, John B. Robert Graves and the White Goddess. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972.