The poets tone is of criticism towards the wars. With the use of words like,’ suicide’, the poet immediately makes the reader think that the soldier hates fighting. In addition to this, this word even allows the writer to set a melancholic and sad atmosphere for the poem. This in turn helps him bring about the soldier’s feeling in a more powerful manner. The poet’s critical tone towards wars can easily be made out when he later on uses the word, ’erasure’. This word helps him mirror the fact that the soldier just wants to erase the very thoughts of war from his mind. This in turn also demonstrates his desire for peace.
Right in the beginning of the poem the poet says, “The war had turned inward until it resembled suicide”. Using this extended analogy the poet tries to state a soldier’s stance on war. It means that now the soldiers were fighting themselves and it was like committing suicide. They were not interested in fighting but still they had to as the government did not give any orders to stop. Through this quote the poet might be hinting at the way the governments of the different nations exploit their soldiers. Here he makes use of a very dark word, suicide, which helps him depict the soldier’s wish for peace. The use of enjambment here further deepens this feeling. Later on with the use of the phrase, “the only soothing thing was water”, the poet mirrors the terrible condition of the soldiers during wars. This might again probably mean that the governments never used to take proper care of the soldiers. It was such a bad condition that in that situation even water which most of us take for granted was a big thing for them.
The poet also uses a metaphor in the poem. He says,” small crabs, the bright yellow of a crayon, had come out onto the sand. Their numerous scattered resembled the galactic spill and volume of the stars”. By the comparison of the crabs to the millions of stars the poet basically brings out the fact that numerous soldiers were stationed at the front and they were constantly fighting. This phrase also acts as a visual imagery and immediately encapsulates the reader into visualizing the horrifying scene.
Further more with the use of the soft sibilance, “surf sounds”, the poet tries to put across the soldier’s state of mind, his long for peace. The sibilance used here gives a flow to this thought and makes it highly impactful. This feeling gets highly intensified in the last stanza when the poet says, “I was alive in the midst of great loving, which is all I have ever wanted”. This phrase displays the fact that the soldiers don’t crave to fight, even they want a peaceful life. But they do it for the sake of others which to their misery no one realizes.
Thus to conclude the poet through this poem demonstrates the feeling and the emotions of the soldiers. He tries to say that even they want peace in their lives but they fight so that we remain safe. In addition to this he also opposes the very common perception which most of us have developed that a soldier longs and thrives to fight. Not only this thought but the poem also covers one more aspect, of how the governments have left their soldiers on the border fronts to die. Throughout the poem the poet makes use of first person narrative. This provides a great deal of help to him as it firstly encapsulates the reader into joining the action and secondly allows him to mirror the soldier’s extreme long for peace.
