MP 2: Poem #2

The Death of a Solider

Life contracts and death is expected,
As in season of autumn.
The soldier falls.

He does not become a three-days personage.
Imposing his separation,
Calling for pomp.                                                                        
Death is absolute and without memorial,
As in a season of autumn,
When the wind stops,

When the wind stops and, over the heavens,
The clouds go, nevertheless,
In their direction. 

Wallace Stevens #281  (p 334)

In the poem Death of a Soldier by Walter Stevens, Stevens uses the literary technique of metaphor throughout the poem by comparing the death of a soldier to the season of autumn.  This is shown in lines 1-3, "Life is contracted and death is expected in the season of autumn. The line, "The soldier falls" shows this because during the season of autumn the leaves "fall" from the trees as they die. In line 4, "he does not become a three-days personage" is a metaphor comparing the soldier to a funeral.  Since funerals and memorials are sometimes three days in some cases, this line is expressing how soldiers do not get this treatment and memorial when they die. This concept is also expressed in line 7, "Death is absolute and without memorial." Another technique that Stevens uses in this poem is repetition. He uses the repetition of the words autumn and soldier (Title,2,3,8) once again inferring the comparison between the two. I believe that this poem has a very deep opinion rooted behind it's simple context and language. Autumn is the season leading into winter when everything begins to die off and no one really takes notice of anything around them because they are so involved within their own lives. Stevens infers that its the same way with soldiers, as he compares the soldiers dying to something as common as falling leaves in the season of autumn. The deep rooted message is that people do not really realize that the soldiers are dying and tend to go on with their every day lives inserting, "the clouds go, nevertheless, in their direction." Personally, I believe that this could be using metaphor comparing the everyday people to clouds as they do not even notice how the destruction of human lives is going on to help them live the liberty filled lives that they do continue living.

MP 2: Poem 1

The Victims

When Mother divorced you, we were glad.  She took it and 

took it, in silence, all those years and then 

kicked you out, suddenly, and her 

kids loved it.  Then you were fired, and we 

grinned inside, the way people grinned when

Nixon’s helicopter lifted off the South 

Lawn for the last time. 

 We were tickled 

to think of your office taken away, 

your secretaries taken away, 

your lunches with three double bourbons,                                 

your pencils, your reams of paper.  

Would they take your 

suits back, too, those dark 

carcasses hung in your closet, and the black 

noses of your shoes with their large pores? 

She had taught us to take it, to hate you and take it

until we  pricked with her for your 

annihilation, Father.  Now I 

pass the bums in doorways, the white 

slugs of their bodies gleaming through slits in their 

suits of compressed silt, the stained                               

flippers of their hands, the underwater 

fire of their eyes, ships gone down with the

lanterns lit, and I wonder who took it and 

took it from them in silence until they had 

given it all away and had nothing left but this.

(Sharon Olds b.1942) pg 317-318 #258

In the poem The Victims by Sharon Olds, the narrator seems to be a child whom was present throughout the time of his or her parents going through a difficult divorce.  Olds uses symbolism and inserts the phrase "your secretaries taken away",   possibly inferring that the father in the poem who the children so much despise, had an affair to bring on such hatred and tear the family apart once and for all. I say once and for all because Old also writes, "She took it and took it, in silence, all those years and then she kicked you out, suddenly". This shows how the mother was not only putting up with turmoil for a short period of time, but for years. Another instance of symbolism is when Olds inserts the phrase, "your lunches with three double bourbons" also symbolizing that alcohol may have been an issue in the mother and father's decayed relationship.  The hatred of the children toward the father is shown in line 1, "  When mother divorced you, we were glad", therefore both of these reasons could be a large part of why the children have hard feelings against their father, and are glad that their mother divorced him.  Another term that Olds utilizes in The Victims is imagery.  Imagery is portrayed in this poem in lines 13-16, "Would they take your suits back, too, those dark carcasses hung in your closet, and the black shoes with their large pores?" This gives a feeling of a dark and almost morbid description to the father's business attire which suggests that the attire is linked to the father going to work as being a dark and bad place. This is indicating that the workplace of the father or events that happened there were most likely where the downfall of their mother and father's relationship was before the divorce. Another example of imagery is when Olds describes the "bums in the doorways" in lines 19-27.  The imagery creates a pathetic tone implying what the narrator's father has turned into. In my opinion, I feel as though this a child struggling through the difficulties of their parents getting divorced.  Since a child does not have an opinion to form on their own, because they do not actually understand the concept of divorce yet, their opinions are formed by the parent with the most influence in their life. I, myself have never been the child in the middle of a parental separation but I have had friends who have been, and in most cases, the younger the children tend to dislike one of their parents whom the other parent causes them to dislike more.  This is usually the case in the situations I have personally seen until a child grows older to form his or her own opinion. This is shown throughout the poem with the such strong hatred of the narrator toward his or her father.