The gift in wartime

Understanding the text

Answer the following questions.

a. Who is the speaker addressing and why can that person not hear or understand what she is saying?

The speaker is addressing her husband. He cannot hear or understand what she is saying because he is dead.

b. What can you infer about the speaker’s feelings for the person addressed as “you”?

Her feelings for that person she addresses as “you” is full of love, affection and devotion. She has gifted him all the pleasures of life. She is saddened by his demise. Although he is no more in the world, she is still hopeful to meet him in their next life.

c. What is the speaker’s attitude toward war?

The speaker has bitter attitude towards war as she has lost her husband.

d. In what ways do you think this person’s fate has affected the speaker?

This person’s fate was to die in war because he was a soldier. The speaker’s happiness and youth ended with his death. Thus, the ill-fate of the person has made her helpless, loveless and miserable.

e. What does the speaker promise at the end of the poem? Why do you think the speaker does this?

At the end of the poem, the speaker promises to meet her lovable person in their next life. She wants to take shrapnel as a proof to show him the reason behind his death and their separation. I think the speaker does this because of her love for the absent person is so deep and she wants to be in love with him again and again.

Reference to the context

a. What is the theme of the poem?

The theme of the poem is the cruelty and inhumanity of the war and its negative impacts over humans. The poem talks about the tragedy caused by war. One life ends but many others are affected. After the untimely death of the soldier, his family and dear ones will suffer. Life is priceless, so there is no compensation for this great loss.

b. What imagery from the poem made the greatest impression on you? Why?

The poet has used several powerful images in this poem. Among them all, I liked the shrapnel image the most. It made it very clear what gift a war can give to human beings. The shrapnel does not only mean that it shattered the body of the soldier, but also shattered the life of the beloved. That is the deadly gift of the war.

c. Which figurative language is used in the poem? Explain with examples.

d. What does the speaker “offer” in this poem? What does the person addressed as “you” give in return?

The speaker offers various things like roses, her wedding gown, her youth, clouds, cold winters etc. to her lovable person. The person addressed as “you” gives her the medals with shining stars, badge with yellow pips, the smell of blood from wardress, lips without a smile, arms without tenderness, eyes without sight, and body without motion.

e. An apostrophe is a literary device in which a writer or speaker addresses an absent person or an abstract idea in such a way as if it were present and can understand. Discuss the poem in relation to apostrophe.

Reference beyond the text

a. One way to get relief from grief is to write or talk about it. In your opinion, how might the speaker in this poem have benefitted from saying what she did? Explain.

b. Write an essay on the effects of war.