That Time of Year Analysis

        Mr. Tso, I'd like to submit this analysis as the one I'd like you to focus on.   

               “That time of year” is a Sonnet by William Shakespeare focused around the inevitable demise of plant life during the fall, and makes metaphors towards human mortality. The poem seems to follow a quatrain format with an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme.

                The poem is separated into two distinct stanzas, with the first stanza used mainly to describe the fall, while the second stanza focuses on death and the end of things.

                The first three lines seem to be dedicated to describing the most distinct feature of autumn, dying trees, but makes reference to the trees being within the speaker, implying these are actually metaphors for the speaker’s own failing health. The fourth through sixth lines continue to describe songbirds and the sunset in sequence, with the sunset possibly being a metaphor for the speaker’s waning years.

                The second stanza begins where the first stanza left off, mentioning the consummation of seemingly everything by the dark of night, a possible metaphor for death and the end of things. The next line directly compares the night to dark, implying that the dark is “Death’s second self”, which consumes and hides away all things “in rest”. The word rest can be taken in two different ways, the common definition of rest being a period of inactivity where an entity ceases action to recuperate, or the second, more permanent meaning of rest, death. Judging by the overlying theme of the rest of the poem, it is assumed to be the second case.

                The second line of the second stanza implies the speaker has reached an advanced age, describing his youth as “ashes”, something which is the product of a flame which has been absent for a long period of time. The ashes are also described as having to die upon a deathbed, adding personification to the speaker’s youth. The third-to last line mentions how the ashes were a product of itself, the fire, implying that youth itself destroys youth, possibly making a reference to how experiences in life while one is young prepares and makes a person accustomed to certain occurrences. The penultimate and final line are somewhat of a non-sequitur, referring to  a “love” which has not been mentioned so far in the poem, but can be assumed to be the reader’s love for life. The speaker makes mention of loving what one has in the time that person has left, adding onto the idea the speaker is nearing the end of his/her life. The entire sonnet seems to be addressed from an older individual to a much younger one, providing advice in the hopes the younger will heed it, but must ultimately experience it themselves.

That Time of Year

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

A Just War Analysis

                “A Just War” is a poem written by the anti-war activist David Roberts in 1999, describing the conflict in Kosovo during the late 20^th century in six simple lines. The poem has no distinct rhyme scheme, using an ABCDEFD format. Throughout the poem the speaker speaks from a first person perspective, addressing an enemy, most likely Yugoslavian forces judging by the threat of retaliation made by the speaker, marking the speaker as an Albanian or Croatian civilian/insurgent. The threat of retaliation seems to be promising retaliation for the slaughter of Albanian/Croatian civilians by the Yugoslavian forces, which are considered war crimes by war crime laws.

The third line of the poem seems to be mocking the leaders of both sides of the conflict, both of which had made claims similar to “This is a just war”, making the speaker’s disgust at the claim apparent, with the following line making it clear the speaker wishes for nothing but revenge for the slaughter of innocent civilians. The tone of the speaker is consistent with nearly all retaliatory threats made during times of war. The final line seems to be meant to be disturbing, with the sentiment expressed by the speaker being that he/she is willing to sacrifice everything to exact revenge on the Yugoslavian forces. Surprisingly, the Kosovo War was actually one of the occasions where WWIII could have broken out, thanks to a conflict between occupying NATO forces concerned as to the war crimes taking place in the area, and the Russian Federation attempting to assist Serbia. Had conflict broken out, the speaker may very well have had their desired conclusion to the conflict. 

A Just War

You killed our families. So we will kill yours. This is a just war, they said. And we will go on killing just until everyone is dead.

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner Analysis

                “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is a short poem written by Randall Jarrell, a former US Air Force Celestial Navigation Tower operator, which was published in 1945, near the end of WWII. The poem consists of five lines, with only two lines rhyming in an ABCDB format. The poem describes the short life of a ball turret gunner on a WWII bomber. The first line seems to imply the gunner was forced to serve, possibly making him a draftee, and the line “From my mother’s sleep” implies the gunner was young and possibly living with his parents.

The second line uses personification to describe the bomber as having a “belly”. This gives us a distinct location for the gunner, probably being in the rear or bottom sections of the plane. The line also includes a mention of “…wet fur froze” which references the fur coats US Air Force personnel wore, and possibly as a product of anxiety, frozen sweat. The third line is straightforward, speaking of enemy fighters and enemy anti-aircraft artillery fire.

The final line is somewhat unusual, as it shifts the perspective of the speaker from first person to omniscient, as he has clearly died, as the last line explicitly states his death and subsequent washing out. Another interpretation of the last line could be that the hose and ball turret are some form of metaphor for the act which created the gunner.

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Dulce et Decorum est Analysis

                “Dulce et Decorum est” is a poem written by Wilfred Owen in 1917, describing the horrors of the First World War. The poem appears to be one large stanza, with an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme. The general theme of the poem describes the horrors of trench warfare, using potent imagery and metaphor to reinforce the point. The use of hyperbole is used extensively, especially when describing a gas attack. Metaphor is used heavily when describing the soldiers, specifically in the first few lines of the text, portraying the soldiers, normally viewed in a noble, clean light as “old beggars under sacks” and “coughing like hags”. This alternate, more realistic view of soldiers serves as a violent beginning to the poem, immediately forcing the reader to reconsider what they imagine when they think of soldiers.

The third through seventh lines continue to emphasize the horrors soldiers endured during WWI, with mention of returning to their trenches for momentary rest, being “drunk with fatigue” and “deaf even to the hoots of… Five-Nines which dropped behind,” with Five-Nines referring to artillery shells, implying the described soldiers had been fighting for an extended period of time, tiring them to the point of barely being able to discern their surroundings. Here, the speaker changes its perspective from narrative to first person, seemingly calling out to their comrades to prepare for a gas attack. This implies the soldiers are in a time period past the Second Battle of Ypres, and past a point where gas masks are common and often used. The poem then uses metaphor liberally to describe the gas attack and dying soldier, describing the gas as “a green sea”, and “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime”. This excessive use of metaphor continues throughout the rest of the poem, adding emphasis to the description of the attack.

The final three lines seem to be a warning, warning civilians to not teach their children of war’s “glory”, and quoting Horace’s Odes, mocking the line “Dulce et Decorum est, pro patria mori”, which when translated means: “it is sweet to die for one’s country”. The entire poem has been built to show that this overly romantic statement could not be further from the truth, citing the horrors of the First World War as proof.

Dulce et Decorum est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs 
And towards our distant rest began to trudge. 
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots 
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; 
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots 
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, 
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; 
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, 
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . . 
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, 
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, 
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. 
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace 
Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; 
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud  
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, 
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest  
To children ardent for some desperate glory, 
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est 
Pro patria mori.

In Flanders Fields Analysis

                “In Flanders Fields” is a poem which was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae during WWI after the death of a friend during the Second Battle for Ypres. The poem is written in a form of Renaissance-era poetic style known as a Rondeau, with this specific poem uses an AABBA format. “In Flanders Fields” was used as propaganda to inspire Canadians to enlist or purchase war bonds.

The poem itself speaks from varying perspectives, and seems to be from a dead soldier speaking to the reader, who supposedly supports the war. The poem’s general tone is somber, and somewhat threatening, with the dead speaker pre-emptively blaming the reader for not continuing to fight the “enemy”. The fact the speaker is dead creates some confusion regarding the perspective the poem is set in, as the speaker is speaking as though in an omniscient role, yet clearly claims he is dead.

 The theme of the poem seems to shift in the third stanza, which mainly states the importance of continuing the fight with a nameless “enemy’, presumably the Axis forces of WWI; in contrast to the earlier two stanzas’ focus being around the fact the speaker and comrades are dead, but still talking to you. The ongoing theme in the last stanza seems very jingoistic and it’s divergence from the rest of the poem makes it seem as though added on to promote the war.

                

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

Sorry!

The 6 poetry analyses will be posted by tonight. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Poems

That Time of Year
When in Disgrace
To a Mouse
Ars Poetica
Ode on a Grecian Urn

Dulce Et Decorum Est
In Flander's Fields
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
Charge of the Light Brigade
A Just War