Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Death of a Soldier is a short poem by Wallace Stevens that was published in his poetry collection titled Harmonium in the year 1923. Stevens wrote the poem in 1917 after reading letters of Eugène Lemercier, a french artist, painter, and soldier, who died in 1915 at the battleground during World War 1. Euegene reported the first-hand account of the war in his letters to his mother. World War I continued for more than four years from July 1914 to November 1918. In 1917, the First World War was still going on when Wallace Stevens wrote this poem.
Structure of The Death of a Soldier:
The poem contains 12 lines composed in 4 stanzas with three lines in every stanza. All the lines are written in Free verse with no specific rhyming scheme or pattern. However, each stanza follows a definitive and impressive punctuation trail. The poet used metaphor, simile, and imagery while drawing an analogy between death and the season of autumn.
In the first stanza, the poet describes many periods with a single comma, suggesting the finality of the course. In the second stanza, the poet describes a single period while using two commas. In the third stanza, no periods are mentioned but there are two commas at the end of lines and there is no enjambment. In the last stanza, there are many commas in the middle and end of lines. There is a period at the end of the poem and it suggests that time passes slowly. The punctuation is used to signify a journey in time and remembrance.
In the first stanza, the poet uses ‘fall’ instead of ‘dies’ in the third line which is more descriptive and dramatic and signifies the soldier’s death, significance, and meaning. The poet connects the death of soldiers with Autumn and uses a metaphor for comparing soldiers falling in the battleground with dry leaves falling from the trees during Autumn. It offers normalcy to the death of soldiers as a part of nature. Poet uses imagery to mention that no matter if the dead soldier is no more in the physical sense, their significance still remains like the power of wind which exists though remains invisible. He further uses imagery and symbolizes the bravery of dead soldiers with the clouds and suggests that even though there is no memorial, their sacrifices, and bravery are revered and remembered.
Themes of The Death of a Soldier:
The poet signifies the horror and wastefulness of war which is still continuing with no hope of any ceasefire. He suggests that in a war, death is inevitable, and someone will die in the war. Thus, the poet describes the battleground not as a stage for glory but as a graveyard of fallen men.
Summary of The Death of a Soldier:
Stanza 1
Lines 1-3
Life contracts and death is expected,
As in a season of autumn.
The soldier falls.
The poet begins with an extended metaphor where he compares the autumn season with war. The first stanza conveys the senselessness and sheer intensity of the loss of life during the First World War which was still going on when the poem was written. The poet acknowledges that the history of human society is full of blemishes of war. It appears as if war is unavoidable like a season, the season of autumn.
In autumn, flowers and green lives dry up and fall from the trees. The poet compares this natural phenomenon with the contraction of loss of life (greenery) as the living leaves fall off the tree and die. Similarly, soldiers die and fall on the battleground. Irrespective of which side a soldier represents, his probable fate, is to fall. The poet uses ‘fall’ instead of ‘dies’ in the third line which is more descriptive and dramatic and signifies the soldier’s death, significance, and meaning. The poet connects the death of soldiers with Autumn and uses a metaphor for comparing soldiers falling in the battleground with dry leaves falling from the trees during Autumn. It offers normalcy to the death of soldiers as a part of nature.
Stanza 2
Lines 4-6
He does not become a three-days’ personage,
Imposing his separation,
Calling for pomp.
In the second stanza, the poet offers a soldier’s perspective concerning the war and while doing so, justifies his initial extended metaphor. During the autumn season, leaves fall but each individual leaf is insignificant to the whole tree as a whole just like each soldier is only a pawn to the countries at war. A soldier’s life is short, and a soldier is expected to fall on the battleground during the bad times. Just like new leaves fill the branches of trees with the arrival of spring, new soldiers are recruited for the security of the nation as the previous soldiers fall on the battleground. None of the soldiers making that ultimate sacrifice to the nation attains any significant ‘personage.’ As an individual, he doesn’t have much significance to the war and thus he doesn’t gain any rank or distinction, he is just another leaf, that fell during the autumn season.
In these three lines, the poet says that the fallen soldier was a new recruiter who hadn’t spent a lot of time with his team. He had less than three days to make his presence felt among his fellow soldiers. Thus, as he falls, nobody notices.
The poet depicts war as a very high-risk venture with very low rewards for an individual. Despite all his efforts and ultimate sacrifice of his own life for the nation, a fallen soldier often remains unrewarded. Even a soldier who survives during the war remains at risk of being deplored and called ruthless, murderer, and war-monger by the very people he is defending.
Stanza 3
Lines 7-9
Death is absolute and without memorial,
As in a season of autumn,
When the wind stops.
The poet repeats the simile of Autumn with the war period. He explicitly relates autumn with the death of soldiers on the battleground and suggests that a soldier is forgotten when he dies. He is but a speck in history concerning all the other millions of soldiers who have died and will die in the future. He further explains the futility of life lost in the war and suggests that, unlike some artists or inventors, or politicians who have something to leave behind so that they will be remembered in history even in death, a soldier has nothing to leave behind. Just like nobody mourns for the fallen leaves as the wind stops, nobody counts the fallen bodies on the battleground after the war is over. The wind has been used as a metaphor to denote the breath of life. The poet asserts that ‘Death is absolute’ and hence negates the myth of the afterlife.
Stanza 4
Lines 10-12
When the wind stops and, over the heavens,
The clouds go, nevertheless,
In their direction.
In the last stanza (line 10), the poet clearly uses the wind as a metaphor for the breath of life of the soldier. When the wind stops, the soldier is no more, but he was always insignificant in the grand scheme of the war because even “When the wind stops” which represents the death of a soldier, “The clouds go” which represents that the war will go on and that individual soldier will be forgotten.
In another sense, the clouds can be considered as the nation to which the fallen soldier belonged. The last stanza can be interpreted as a celebration of the bravery of the soldier. Though he sacrificed his life, his wind, his breath of air, pushed the cloud, his nation towards the goal, a better future, in their direction.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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