Re: Off topic: Pixilated proverbs

["Patricia M. Godfrey" pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

Lowell wrote that he was "the one with arrows in my back." Heaven knows
one sees the expression that way often enough, but it says the opposite
of what is meant. The pioneers (a term that in older military usage
designated what we would now call those on point, or the forward scouts)
can be told because they have arrows in their CHESTS--they've tripped the
ambush, fallen on the grenade, tempted the bushwhackers to act too soon,
whatever. The only ones with arrows in their backs would be 1)
yellow-bellied cowards who broke and ran (in some epic or other, I forget
which, the--dead--hero's kin are reassured that "his wounds were all
before [i.e. in his front]"; he never turned tail); or 2) an unpopular
officer who was scragged by his own men.
Patricia