The poem The Death of a Soldier is deceiving in form with its short stanzas and lines, but a profound meaning lies behind what is seen. “Life contracts and death is expected, as in a season of autumn. The soldier falls.” This opening stanza is using metaphor to compare the death of a soldier nonchalantly to the changing of the seasons, without any emotion, as if it is normal. The line “as in a season of autumn” is repeated in the poem completely taking away any emotion or feeling behind the death of the soldier. The second time this line is mentioned is in stanza three when stated “death is absolute and without memorial, as in a season of autumn.” The use of repetition is expressing the fact that autumn is being compared to death and this makes the loss of this soldier impersonal, and the narrator is saying this will happen as naturally as summer turning to autumn, and autumn turning to winter. Metaphor is also used at the end of the poem when the narrator says “when the wind stops and, over the heavens, the clouds go, nevertheless, in their direction.” In this last stanza, the author of the poem is using metaphor to close the poem saying that just as the clouds move along in the sky so does the death of a person on earth. The winds may have stopped, and the soldier may be dead, but all will continue to move on without hesitation.
My personal reflection of this poem is that it was written to show how a human life could be lost without any remorse or regard. This Unknown Soldier has left earth as simply as the seasons change and a cloud passing by in the sky. The soldier is not mourned or celebrated and the fact that his life seems to be forgotten is disturbing. Line four claims, “He does not become a three-day personage,” meaning his death will not be even mentioned, and he will go unnoticed, unseen, unidentified. Despite how short the poem is, the meaning behind the words of the author is deeply saddening and make me question just how often situations as this soldier’s occur.
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