Response To Poetry Essay

503 Words3 Pages

Emig argues that the revision was led by the idea to use more “objective” rhetoric to describe the same idea. (p. 276) Consequently, despite the revision of the verses, the Marxist concept of freedom is still there. Now, when the meaning and significance of these verses became clear, it is possible to come back to the poem and to analyze the last two stanzas.
The second-last stanza depicts soldiers´ life with emphasis on comradeship. The representation of this idea is constructed by listing stereotyped assumptions such as “shared cigarette” (97), “cards” (98) and “masculine jokes” (99) which usually come to mind when you think about soldiers in their free time. However, this part confronts the stereotyped notions, depicting absolutely new feature of comradeship: “To-day the / fumbled and unsatisfactory embrace before hurting” (99-100). This verses contains a certain degree of emotionality, created by description of soldiers´ feelings by embracing each other. “Unsatisfactory embrace” (100) is assumed to be very quick due to the lack of time as it was time for “hurting” (100), in other words for “necessary murder”. …show more content…

According to Marxist ideas, “Stars” (101) can be understood as uncontrolled forces, because people sometimes metaphorically ask them for help, but the dead stars cannot help them, so that people have to act themselves. “The animals will not look” (101), – this phrase stresses the idea of consciousness, which is not clear to animals, so it has to be applied by man to redress the situation. This idea is also presented in the next verse, explaining that the only way to change something is to take responsibility for the happening because the necessity is obvious. The poem ends with a passive image of “History” (103) which can neither say nor do