Ultima Ratio Regum
The guns spell money's ultimate reason
In letters of lead on the spring hillside.
But the boy lying dead under the olive trees
Was too young and too silly
To have been notable to their important eye.
He was a better target for a kiss.
When he lived, tall factory hooters never summoned him.
Nor did restaurant plate-glass doors revolve to wave him in.
His name never appeared in the papers.
The world maintained its traditional wall
Round the dead with their gold sunk deep as a well,
Whilst his life, intangible as a Stock Exchange rumour, drifted outside.
O too lightly he threw down his cap
One day when the breeze threw petals from the trees.
The unflowering wall sprouted with guns,
Machine-gun anger quickly scythed the grasses;
Flags and leaves fell from hands and branches;
The tweed cap rotted in the nettles.
Consider his life which was valueless
In terms of employment, hotel ledgers, news files.
Consider. One bullet in ten thousand kills a man.
Ask. Was so much expenditure justified
On the death of one so young and so silly
Lying under the olive tree, O world, O death?
The poem explores the contrast between the value of human life and the destructive power of war. The opening line bluntly states that war is driven by money, and the following lines describe the death of a young boy, too innocent to have been considered important by the powers that be.
The boy's life is contrasted with the world of industry and commerce, where he had no place. His death is equally meaningless in the grand scheme of things, as one bullet in ten thousand kills a man. The poem ends with a series of rhetorical questions that challenge the justification of such a waste of life.
In comparison to Spender's other works, this poem is more overtly political and less lyrical. It reflects the disillusionment and despair of the post-World War I period. The poem's spare language and stark imagery convey a sense of the futility and horror of war.