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O Death, Where Is Thy Sting-a-Ling-a-Ling?
- Abstract
A WORD about my title-a line from a British soldiers’ song, popular in World War I. Clearly it is an irreverent version of a passage from St. Paul, one of the West’s early great thanatologists. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul (adapting a passage from Hosea) writes, “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Perhaps I should quote the entire lyric of the World War I song, so it may be appreciated how little those soldiers cared for St. Paul’s solace:
The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling
For you but not for me,
And the little devils how they sing-a-ling-a-ling
For you but not for me.
O death, where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling?
O grave, thy victoree? The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling
For you but not for me.
My own preference is clear. Popular wisdom about finding God in the trenches notwithstanding, the British soldiers in their own mocking way restore the sting to death and victory to the grave. And they do something more: they suggest the impenetrability of the subject and the necessity of some humor to counter man’s futile ambitions to pontificate about matters beyond him.
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