They put the screens around his bed;
a crumpled heap I saw him lie,
White counterpane and rough dark head,
those screens — they showed that he would die.
The put the screens about his bed;
We might not play the gramophone,
And so we played at cards instead
And left him dying there alone.
The covers on the screens are red,
The counterpanes are white and clean;
He might have lived and loved and wed
But now he’s done for at nineteen.
An ounce or more of Turkish lead,
He got his wounds at Sulva Bay
They’ve brought the Union Jack to spread
Upon him when he goes away.
He’ll want those three red screens no more,
Another man will get his bed,
We’ll make the row we did before
But — Jove! — I’m sorry that he’s dead.
a crumpled heap I saw him lie,
White counterpane and rough dark head,
those screens — they showed that he would die.
The put the screens about his bed;
We might not play the gramophone,
And so we played at cards instead
And left him dying there alone.
The covers on the screens are red,
The counterpanes are white and clean;
He might have lived and loved and wed
But now he’s done for at nineteen.
An ounce or more of Turkish lead,
He got his wounds at Sulva Bay
They’ve brought the Union Jack to spread
Upon him when he goes away.
He’ll want those three red screens no more,
Another man will get his bed,
We’ll make the row we did before
But — Jove! — I’m sorry that he’s dead.
Winifred Mary Letts
This poem is about a wounded soldier who has just passed away on his hospital bed. Although it would be considered as a horrific shocking experience the poet almost uses a sense of sarcasm. "But-Jove!-I'm sorry that he's dead". This could be read as a sarcastic chant, almost like a song. Letts is expressing the normality of death within that time period, almost as if it were a regular experience.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the poem is portraying how common death was during the war and how people continued about their lives and 'played at cards instead' of caring for the men. This could be presented through the use of a regular rhyming pattern, as it represents how regular and repetitive the deaths were. I also think the poet manages to shock the reader by so casually commenting on how 'he would die', ‘he’s done for’ and that he was 'left dying there alone' with little sympathy; therefore conveying the horrors of war in a more realistic way, as we realise how much the men had to go through.
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