literary reference puzzle

Ok, I am reading 100 cupboards...and in chapter 4 Frank has a sort of literary fit and throws out some very familiar references...but I can't find where most of them come from...I think they are not exact and mooshed together.

I am sure that between us we can figure this out...
and I quote:
"Women and Children behind the lines!" he yelled..."Bang the drum slowly and ask not for whom the bell's ringing, for the answer's unfriendly!"..."two years have my black ships sat before Troy, and today its gate shall open before the strength of my arm."...Henry, we play baseball tomorrow. Today we sack cities. Dots!(that is his wife's name) Fetch me my tools! Down with the French! Once more into the breach, and fill the wall with our coward dead! Half a league! Half a league! Hey, batter,batter!"

I get the last bit, that is baseball. ha ha.
Then Half a league is from "Charge of the Light Brigade"
I believe that bang the drum slowly is from the song/poem "The streets of Larado" used in a baseball movie of that name (bang the drum slowly) which would tie in the baseball aspect AND the sort of death/battle thing.
Once more into the breach...from Henry the 5th (Shakespeare) although he said fill the wass with our English dead...

What have you guys got...I know I have heard. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee...but where?

 

"For whom the bell tolls" is from the poem by John Donne. (No man is an island). There was also a movie by that name, making reference to the poem, but the poem is where the famous line comes from.

 

I think "two years have my black ships sat before Troy, and today its gate shall open before the strength of my arm" Is from the Illiad... probably book VIII??? But I'm not 100% on that.

 

Amie...you rock!
I was figuring either the Illiad, Odessy or Aeneid ...but I didn't want to read them all for one line. ha ha.

 

not the Illiad Book VIII...hmmm.

 

I thought "Bang the Drum Slowly" was the movie about Brian Piccalo, where the song "Hands of Time" came from. I KNEW you all were WAY off, so I looked it up, and it turned out that *I* was wrong, lol!!!

 

Black Ships before Troy is where the Troy reference comes from. We read that this past year.

 

For Whom the Bells Toll is also a book by Ernest Hemingway (as well as a movie) about war (the Spanish Civil War).

 

Right, but the title of the Hemingway book comes from the poem. And the line "Ask not for whom the bell tolls...." comes from the poem.

 

"...it tolls for thee"

 

I knew that the title of the book was inspired by the poem..I was just adding another literary tidbit for you all.

 

So Shelly...is that the Odessy? I couldn't find the quote in the Iliad.
oh and Shakespeare said "fill the WALLS not fill the wass...wasn't paying attention there. duh.

 

No, it's the title of the book: Black Ships before Troy. It's a prose narrative of the Illiad.

 

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! I knew it had something to do with the Illiad, but couldn't pin it down in my mind.... lol.