“My darling one, you are young and lovely, But inexperienced, and though you think The world is at your feet, It can rise up and tread on you.”

—Atonement, Ian McEwan

Elegy For Dunkirk

Dario Marianelli

Elegy For Dunkirk | Dario Marianelli

The song is made up of solemn background music by a strings quartet, with the cello playing the main melody, and the hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. The hymn was taken from the poem The Brewing of Soma by John Greenleaf Whittier. Whittier describes the true method for contacting the divine: by living dedicated to doing God’s will, seeking silence and selflessness in order to hear the “still small voice” of God. 

“Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still small voice of calm!”

             - Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

The scene in which Elegy for Dunkirk is played sets in the context of the Battle of Dunkirk during World War II, where English soldiers, including Robbie Turner, are waiting to be evacuated. The scene features a bleak atmosphere of the battlefield, with destroyed buildings, flames and smokes, wounded and dead soldiers, and a group of soldiers singing the hymn. There is no dialogue. Later on in the movie, we find out that Robbie dies in Dunkirk of septicemia while waiting for rescue. 

“에드워드가 기분은 어때? 무슨 생각해? 하고 물을 때마다 그녀는 늘 서툰 대답만 했다. 다른 사람들은 모두 가지고 있는 간단한 심리적 반응, 너무나 평범한 것이라서 누구도 언급하지 않았던, 감각을 통해 사람과 사건, 그리고 자신의 욕구와 욕망을 즉시 인지하는 능력이 자신에겐 결핍되어 있음을 발견하는 데 이렇게나 오래 걸렸던 것이다. 그녀는 요 몇 년 동안 쭉, 자기 안에 고립된 상태로 살아왔고, 또 희한하게도 시선을 자신에게서 다른 곳으로 돌리고 싶다는 욕망이나 그렇게 해보겠다는 용기가 전혀 생기지 않았다.”

—이언 맥큐언 (Ian McEwan) - 체실 비치에서 (On Chesil Beach)
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