Analysis on 'War is Kind' by Stephen Crane

War is Kind by Stephen Crane

In this five stanza excerpt from ‘War is Kind’ by Stephen Crane, the poet does not use any pattern of rhyme or rhythm. In fact, the whole poem is written in free verse. But that doesn’t mean that there are moments of rhyme or techniques used to create rhythm. For example, the endings of lines one and five of stanza one rhyme with the words “kind” and “kind”. So do lines three and six of stanza two with “die” and “lie.” These same endings are used again in the fourth stanza of the excerpt. 

In addition to these full rhymes, there are half or slant rhymes. These are also scattered around the text and connect to one another due to assonance, vowel sound, or consonance, consonant sound. For example, “regiment” and “fight” in stanza two. Another example is “kind” and “wild” in stanza one, which are related due to their similar long “i” sounds. 

Repetition is also an important part of the poem. It is a technique used within all forms of poetry, but within free verse writing can help to unify the lines. In the case of ‘War is Kind’ Crane uses and reuses the phrase “War is kind” five times in this excerpt alone. The statement is always preluded by another three line phrase, “Do not weep”. These are two directions both aimed at the “maiden” referenced in the first line. 

Summary of War is Kind 

In the first lines of ‘War is Kind’ by Stephen Crane the speaker tells a young woman that she shouldn’t cry because war is kind. He goes on to tell the woman that her “lover threw” his hands in the air while in battle, perhaps because he was injured. In the next stanzas the speaker describes how soldiers usually act in battle and how they are made to fight and die. He also speaks to a child and a mother, telling them not to cry in the face of death either. 

Analysis of War is Kind

Stanza One 

Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind. 

Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky 

And the affrighted steed ran on alone, 

Do not weep. 

War is kind. 

In the first stanza of ‘War is Kind’ the speaker begins by making use of the refrain. He tells a “maiden,” or unmarried woman, that she should not weep. “War,” he states, is “kind”. This is obviously a very unusual and likely ironic, thing to say.

He goes on to tell the woman that her “lover threw” his hands in the air when he was confronted with war. When this happened, his “steed,” or horse ran alone. It was “affrighted,” a complicated way to say frightened. It is unclear what exactly happened to make the lover throw his hands in the air. Maybe it was in surrender, or perhaps something darker happened and he was injured or even killed. 

The last two lines of this stanza are a reiteration of part of the first line, and the two statements which make up the refrain. These two lines bookend the stanza, as they do with stanzas three and five. 

Stanza Two 

Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment, 

Little souls who thirst for fight, 

These men were born to drill and die. 

The unexplained glory flies above them, 

Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom— 

A field where a thousand corpses lie. 

In the second stanza of ‘War is Kind’ the speaker plays with the previous reference to a “steed” and uses the word “Hoarse”. This time though he is referring to the drums played by the regiment of soldiers. They sound “hoarse,” as if they are sick or in need of something to drink. In the next two lines the speaker says the soldiers are “Little souls” and are thirsting not for water, but “for fight”. 

The phrase little souls is interesting, it contrast with the next lines which seem to suggest the men do not have souls. The speaker goes on to say that these men were born for nothing else other than to fight. They were born to “drill” as in train and practice, and then die. They are mechanical in their actions and in their purpose. 

In the fourth line the speaker references “unexplained glory”. There is no clear definitive answer to what this glory is, but it could refer to the ephemeral nature of glory itself. It is something which spectators and outsiders from war imbue upon those who were in war. Glory is not something that actively seeks out soldiers on the battlefield.

In the last lines of the section the speaker mentions a battle god. There are a number of different gods who could fit this description, but the exact name does not matter. What the speaker is doing here is setting out a scene, which is ruled differently than other kingdom. This particular kingdom is nothing more than a field where “a thousand corpses lie”. Its a dark and terrible place, which is ruled over by a powerful force.

Stanza Three 

Do not weep, babe, for war is kind. 

Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches, 

Raged at his breast, gulped and died, 

Do not weep. 

War is kind. 

In the third stanza the speaker begins by asking a “babe” not to weep. He has moved on from addressing a woman to speaking to a young child. 

He tells the child that there is no reason to weep, and then provides them with a very good reason to do so. The child’s father, who was in a battle of some kind died in “the yellow trenches”. He had rage in his breast and in the simplest way, “gulped and died”. The “rage” refers to his own thirst for war, and to the injury which killed him. The bullet entered his body, driven by another’s rage. 

The refrain is again repeated. It is starting to become even more haunting as its deep irony is made clear.

Stanza Four 

Swift, blazing flag of the regiment, 

Eagle with crest of red and gold, 

These men were born to drill and die. 

Point for them the virtue of slaughter, 

Make plain to them the excellence of killing 

And a field where a thousand corpses lie. 

The flag of the regiment is  mentioned in the fourth stanza of ‘War is Kind’. It is “blazing” and pattered with a “crest of red and gold” and an eagle. There is another moment of repetition in which the line “These men were born to drill and die” is used again. It is a reminder, and its reuse helps create a rhythm to the poem. Along with the refrain “Do not weep. / War is kind” the poem starts to sound song-like.

In lines four through six of this stanza the speaker goes through some terrible images. He speaks to the flag, and tells it to make sure the men know that there is “virtue” in slaughtering one’s enemies and that there is “excellence” in killing. The stanza ends with the repetition of the line “And a field where a thousand corpses lie.” 

Stanza Five 

Mother whose heart hung humble as a button 

On the bright splendid shroud of your son, 

Do not weep. 

War is kind.

The fifth stanza of ‘War is Kind’ is directed toward a mother who was faced with the loss of her son. With the alliterative phrase “heart hung humble” the speaker describes the way she stood  before his coffin. Her heart was on the “shroud” of her son, as simple as a button. Crane describes the heart as completing the action, a technique known as metonymy. The excerpt ends with the speaker again telling someone not to cry, and that war is kind. 

Analysis of A Bird, Came Down the Walk - Saumya Aloysius

A Bird, came down the Walk

Stanza One 

A Bird, came down the Walk –

He did not know I saw –

He bit an Angle Worm in halves 

And ate the fellow, raw,

In the first stanza of ‘A Bird, came down the Walk’ the speaker begins by describing the simple, yet beautiful movements of a bird. This particular bird is coming “down the Walk.” This is likely a sidewalk or path of some kind near the speaker’s home, or where she is situated. The speaker is able to observe the bird’s actions without it immediately becoming frightened. This says something about humans and their interactions with nature. Birds are rightfully wary of the presence of humans. They will not behave in the same way if they are knowingly being watched. 

The speaker does not have any ill intentions though. She is simply reporting on what she’s seeing, and finding importance in the instinctual actions of the bird. It finds a worm, noted here as an “Angle Worm,” and eats it raw, biting it in half. 

Stanza Two 

And then, he drank a Dew

From a convenient Grass –

And then hopped sidewise to the Wall 

To let a Beetle pass –

The next thing the speaker sees is the bird drinking the “Dew” from the grass. It doesn’t have to go anywhere else to find water, making the “Dew” and “Grass” “convenient.” So far, its life has been presented as a simple movement from need to need.

In the next two lines another small life is introduced, the “Beetle.” While the two creatures might be simple to human eyes, the bird makes a conscious effort to “hop” to the side and “let” the beetle crawl past. The bird is very aware of its world, as will be seen in the final stanzas. 

Stanza Three 

He glanced with rapid eyes,

That hurried all abroad –

They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,

He stirred his Velvet Head. –

In stanza three of ‘A Bird, came down the Walk’, the bird’s reactions to its world are carefully studied by the speaker. It is clear she is truly watching this creature and taking sound mental notes on what it is doing. She notices its inherent anxiety. No matter what it’s doing it looks around “with rapid eyes.” They move quickly, “all abroad,” trying to see everything at once. It is very on edge and aware of the variety of dangers it might face. 

The speaker takes some liberties with the description and states how the bird’s eyes appear like “frightened Beads.” They are shiny, probably black, and moving or rolling around easily. The bird becomes scared of the speaker and “stir[s]” its “Velvet Head.” This description of his feathers is interesting. Dickinson uses the word “Velvet” implying a kind of luxury about the animal. It is clear she, or at least the speaker she is channeling, sees the bird as a lovely thing. 

Stanza Four 

Like one in danger, Cautious,

I offered him a Crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers,

And rowed him softer Home –

The fourth stanza of ‘A Bird, came down the Walk’ describes the one interaction the speaker attempts with the bird. She reaches out to him and offers “him a crumb” of food. The bird does not react positively to this intrusion on its space and as its instincts require, flies away. 

In Dickinson’s words, the action is much more complicated and elegant. The bird is said to “unroll…his feathers.” It is a process the speaker sees slowly and is able to study. Each feather passes her by in all its “Velvet” beauty. When he takes to the sky he is said to “row” to his “Home,” wherever that may be. The use of the word “row” here, as if applying to sailing, starts a metaphor that continues into the fifth stanza. Dickinson closely relates water and flight and the movements which make them up. 

Stanza Five

Than Oars divide the Ocean,

Too silver for a seam,

Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon, 

Leap, splash-less as they swim.

The last stanza is more metaphorical than those which came before it. The speaker is interested in how the bird’s wings move through the air. She describes this process as being similar to “Oars divid[ing] the Ocean.” 

The bird has a clear beauty that is compared to a butterfly that takes off from the “Banks of Noon” in the heat of the day. It jumps and moves “splash-less” through the air. It cuts through the air as an oar would through the water.

A Bird, Came Down the Walk

Summary

Popularity of “A Bird, Came down the Walk: Emily Dickinson, a great American poet, wrote ‘A Bird, Came Down the Walk’. It is a famous thought-provoking composition of natural beauty. The bird is also addressed as a human, especially a male that makes the poem more relatable. The poem speaks about a tiny bird that comes down to the earth to satisfy his hunger. It also illustrates how he reacts carefully to his environment. The poem explores the human connection with the natural world.

“A Bird, Came down the Walk” As a Representative of Nature: This poem is about the speaker’s interaction with a bird that comes down in search of food. The poem begins when the speaker scrutinizes a bird moving along the pathway. Unaware about the surroundings, the bird catches a worm, cuts it into pieces, and devours it. Also, he drinks dewdrops from the grass and then slowly hops aside to let the beetle pass. The bird, fearful, looks around quickly with rapid eyes. Both the speaker and the bird are trying to surmount their fears because the bird is walking in a strange land and the narrator is on his path. The speaker gently offers him a crumb, but, instead of taking, he unrolled his feathers and takes his flight back home. The speaker notices his departure and elegantly describes his casual walk.

Major Themes in “A Bird, Came down the Walk”: Nature’s beauty, human connection with nature, and self-consciousness are the major themes of this poem. At first glance, the poem seems simply about a bird that comes down to satisfy his hunger and departs gently without bringing any harm to the earth. On a deeper level, the poem explains the inner self-conscious nature of man versus bird. Normally, nature acts as a mother that provides comfort to every living creature. However, here, it frightens the bird and leaves the speaker shy. Keeping the fear of being caught in mind, the bird walks away whereas the writer’s interaction with the bird is also somewhat suspenseful.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “A Bird, Came Down the Walk”

Literary devices are tools used by writers to convey their emotions, ideas, and themes to make texts more appealing to the reader. Emily Dickinson has also used some literary devices in this poem to make it appealing. The analysis of some of the literary devices used in this poem has been listed below.

1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /o/ in ‘And rowed him softer Home’ and the sound of /i/ in ‘They looked like frightened Beads, I thought’.

2.  Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick succession. For example, the sound of /l/ in ‘They looked like frightened Beads, I thought’.

3.    Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /d/ in ‘And then hopped sidewise to the Wall’ and the sound of /n/ in ‘And then, he drank a Dew’.

4.  Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break. Instead, it is continued in the next line or verse. For example,

“And then hopped sidewise to the Wall

To let a Beetle pass.”

5.    Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “A Bird, came down the Walk”, “He bit an Angle Worm in halves” and “I offered him a Crumb.”

6.   Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between different persons and objects. For example, the bird’s head is compared with velvet in the last line of the third stanza, ‘He stirred his Velvet Head’.

7.  Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to inanimate objects. For example, the bird is personified throughout the poem. The poet uses ‘he’ instead of ‘it’ in the following verses, ‘He bit an Angle Worm in halves’, ‘And he unrolled his feathers’, ‘And rowed him softer Home’.

8. Simile: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between different persons and objects by using ‘like’ or ‘as’. For example, bird’s eyes are compared with beads in ‘They looked like frightened Beads, I thought’.

9.  Symbolism: Symbolism is a use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings different from their literal meanings. Dreams symbolize hope and sadness.

 

Saumya Aloysius

saumyaaloysius@gmail.com

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What is Nature Poetry?

Nature poetry is a form of writing that focuses primarily on themes, ideas, emotions, situations, or images that have to do with nature or the wilderness.

The poem may also focus on the human being in relation to nature, rather than simply on nature itself. 

Poets often choose to use figurative language to express thoughts and ideas in the poem; these figurative devices may include similes and metaphors, which are comparisons, or personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and so on.

Nature poetry might focus on the relationship between people and nature.

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A model question - 'The Bear' by Anton Chekov

 

Appreciation of English Literary Texts – Grade 10/11

Smirnov has been made a bear by the playwright. Do you agree? Discuss with reference to Anon Chekov’s ‘The Bear’.

You must be careful enough to include the following when writing the answer.

1.  Who is Smirnov?

2.  What is he?

3.  How does he behave when the story begins?

4.  Why has he been compared to a bear?

5.  What are the qualities of a bear?

6.  Does he show such qualities in the drama?

7.  Where does he behave as a bear? Example/s must be given

Word limit: 300-350

Time: 35 minutes

 Not allowed to copy & paste from online sources.

  Answer must be yours.

  Grammar/Spelling/Handwriting must be perfect

November 23, 2020

The Big Match 1983 - Saumya Aloysius

 Structure and Poetic Techniques in Big Match 1983

‘Big Match 1983’ by Yasmin Goonaratne is a fifty-nine line poem that is contained within one block of text. The poem does not contain a specific rhyme scheme, but Goonaratne does make use of several poetic techniques. These include alliteration, enjambment and caesura.

The first, alliteration, occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same letter. For example, “cower, cancel” in the second line. 

Caesura occurs when a line is split in half, sometimes with punctuation, sometimes not. For example, line twenty-eight: “not a dull moment. No one can complain”.

Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. One has to move forward in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. There are a number of instances in which this technique influences a reader’s understanding of the text. They include the transitions between lines fifteen and sixteen, as well as lines thirty-one and thirty-two. 

Analysis of Big Match 1983

Lines 1-9

In the first lines of ‘Big Match 1983,’ the speaker begins by bringing the reader into a world of headlines and tourists. These tourists take a glance at the “headlines in the newspapers” and move quickly, like bugs, “scuttling for cover”. These headlines appear in the fourth line of the poem, they read “‘Flash point in Paradise.’ ‘Racial pot boils over.’” 

These quick bursts of information describe an area that’s not quite as safe as these tourists might like. They “cancel” the time they intended to spend in rooms with “views of temple and holy mountain”. “Paradise” is quickly becoming untenable. The conflict is between the government and the Tamil Tigers, as outlined in the introduction to this article. 

In the next lines, the poem moves to speak on a boy who had “gone away”. He was seeking out his own history in Toronto, Canada. It appears as though this boy returned to Sri Lanka, deciding that Toronto was “quite romantic enough for his purposes”. 

Lines 10-20 

In the next lines, the poet adds that “we,” presumably the people of Sri Lanka, were unable to “share” or “shelter”. Together, they are seeking to find the “match that lit this sacrificial fire”. This alludes to a quest to the deeper origins of the conflict and a cultural desire to understand the match that lit this fire. It was a “big” one, as the title suggests. 

When looking back on their history, this collective “we” remembers “‘Forty Eight ‘and ‘Fifty Six’”. These dates mark important pivot points in Sri Lanka history that led up to 1983. The first references the independence of the British Colony of Ceylon, which decades later came to be known as Sri Lanka. These second, 1956, is in reference to the Ceylonese riots, the first outbreak of Vince between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority. 

The new lines refer to other moments of “treachery” on the part of the government and political figures. The “first sparks,” the poet says, were fanned into the enormous flame in “Nineteen Fifty Eight”. This is in regards to the 1985 anti-Tamil pogrom and further riots in Ceylon. The pogrom, or a violent riot aimed at the massacre/prosecution of an ethnic or religious group, was targeted at the Tamils. 

Despite coming to an understanding of the origins of the Civil War, the speaker and her collective “we” “find no comfort in [their] neat solution, / no calm abstraction, and no absolution”. On top of that, there is no way for them to change what’s going on anyway. 

Lines 21-33

The speaker explores in the next lines of ‘Big Match 1983’ the larger implications of violence. There is a “fever” that gripped both sides. The match that sparked the fire is burning “high and fast,” as if on headed straight for complete destruction. 

Moving into a new scene, the speaker describes a “tall house dim with old books and pictures”. This is juxtaposed with the imagery in the previous lines of fire and death. There are “calm hands” handling a “clamouring telephone”. The next lines of ‘Big Match 1983’ contain the words of one person on the phone. They speak lightheartedly and optimistically about the conflict going on around them. There is nothing “boring” about it they say. Then, they go into detail about how they are “Up all night keeping watch”. 

The speaker on this end of the phone is revealed to be a man in line thirty-five. He sends a woman, who is presumably his wife, along with his children “to a neighbours house”. 

Lines 34-42

Describing his own life in more detail, the new male speaker says that he’s always been a drinker, but now that the conflict is raging, his intake has been stepped up. He speaks in clear, seemingly unworried language about the “torches” and what happens when they get within “fifty feet of this house”. His statements are off the cuff, and appear to be making light of the situation. He muses that he’ll be the first to go up in flames, rather than his books because of how much he drinks. 

The narrator of ’Big Match 1983’ describes a pause on the phone line, and then the male speaker resumes talking. Thanking the narrator for calling and expressing the opinion that this call was similar to those they might’ve shared when they were neighbours in 1958. 

Lines 43-49 

The male speaker concludes the call by thanking the narrator again and stating that he’s glad that some “lines haven’t yet been cut”. This is a reference to both the phone lines and the larger relationship between the areas rife with conflict, and those outside the most dangerous areas. 

Goonaratne’s speaker goes on, describing how there are “a hundred guns” outside the fences of Jaffna, the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. They are ready for action, “bristl[ing]”. The imagery grows darker, with the speaker depicting childhood haunts melting in the flames of the riots. There are dead children, blood stains and crowds that are unable to help, looking the other way. The streets are desolate. 

Lines 50-59 

In the last lines of ‘Big Match 1983,’ the speaker adds that “Near the wheels” of one dead boy’s bicycle there are “two policemen” who avoid looking at the child’s corpse. In contrast to this attitude, is another man who falls in anguish to his knees as sticks and stones pelt him. His neighbour is responsible.

Within the conclusion, the speaker says that the “joys” of youth, friendship and childhood are being ravaged by politics, policies and ideologies. Sri Lanka as a country is personified in the last lines. She’s a screaming woman, burning alive as her people murder one another.