# Poem in the Film Patton

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poem-in-the-film-patton/165136>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 30, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poem-in-the-film-patton/165136 "2003-03-30T02:18:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poem-in-the-film-patton/165136/1 "2003-03-30T02:18:39Z")

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I rewatched movie _Patton_ today, and in it, George C. Scott recites a poem by Patton. In doing a google search, I come up with sites that reprint the poem (or at least the part of it Scott recites in the film), but none of the sites I can find list the title of the poem. They also disagree slightly on the wording and all of them seem to use the film as the source of the quote. Now, I’m certain that Patton _did_ write such a poem, but I’d like to know the correct wording of it and what the title of it was if it had one.

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**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poem-in-the-film-patton/165136/2 "2003-03-30T03:32:18Z")

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It has been a while since I have watched the movie, but was the poem [“Through a Glass Darkly”](http://www.generalpatton.com/poem.html)?

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**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poem-in-the-film-patton/165136/3 "2003-03-30T05:27:08Z")

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“YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD, I READ YOUR POEM!!!”

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poem-in-the-film-patton/165136/4 "2003-03-30T13:10:33Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by brianmelendez \*  
> \*\*It has been a while since I have watched the movie, but was the poem [“Through a Glass Darkly”](http://www.generalpatton.com/poem.html)? \*\*

Bingo! Only Scott in the film doesn’t recite the whole thing, just a few lines.