The Death of a Soldier (page 410)

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.    

I wandered lonely as a cloud (page 422-423)

The title of the poem, I wandered lonely as a cloud, is a perfect example of a major literary device that is sporadically illustrated throughout the verses. “Lonely as a cloud” is not only a simile, but can also be considered to be personification.  The title itself suggests that a cloud is being given human characteristics by being described as wandering “lonely.”  Personification and metaphor also appear in lines three to six such as “when all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils; beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”  Here these lines are personifying daffodils to people by describing them as “a crowd” and “dancing in the breeze.” The use of personification and metaphor in the first verse is to give the idea that the poem is not just about a cloud and nature but that there is truly a deeper meaning behind the given context.  The poem is clearly not about a wandering cloud but about a person who is enjoying life’s beauty, pleasures, and on a journey to explore. 

            In addition to personification, simile, and metaphor being common literary devices in the poem, imagery is also a main component.  Descriptive images of nature run throughout the entire poem giving it an easy free-spiritive theme.  The second stanza lines seven to ten paints a perfect example of imagery with descriptions such as “continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way, they stretch in never-ending line along the margin of a bay.” Although imagery is respected in its own use, in this specific poem imagery is created through the metaphors and personification written throughout.  When reading the line at the end of the second stanza “ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance” a clear picture is set in one’s mind of a midnight sky plentiful of twinkling stars, but this is formed through the use of personifying the stars by saying they tossed “their heads in sprightly dance.”  Stars cannot actually toss their heads back being that they do not have one, but this creates a playful tone and formulates imagery to help the reader envision what the narrator is seeing. He wants us to see that there is a mass amount of daffodils all along the shore and because of the vast amount; it reminds the man of stars in the Milky Way. The poem is very much shaped on the premises of metaphor, personification, and imagery, all working hand-in-hand as one.

            In my personal interpretation of I wandered lonely as a cloud, I feel it is simply about one man showing appreciation of nature and its company.  The man in the poem is a poet and he may steam inspiration through the use of nature, being that he has such an acute awareness of everything around him and in line fifteen it states, “A poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company.”  The poem is also conveying that sometimes the best company is nature, “which is the bliss of solitude.”  The poet confirms that being alone in only the presence of the environment makes him content and his “heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.”  While most overlook the simplicity of what is outside your door, this one man, this one poet has come to enjoy and love the pure beauty that Mother Nature has graced the world with.