rom them when really there are many in their own cities that are fighting against sadness and grief over the loss of dear ones and loved ones or those who are living nervously and at the ‘edge of their seats’. War explores the gruesomeness of war and the terrifying torments faced by those who are fighting or helping on the front line. The poem is set in an emergency field hospital near the front line. A battle is going on in the distance.
A badly wounded man with a massive injury caused by a ricochet is brought in for the doctor to treat. The poem is set into three parts. The first part is where the injured man is brought into the tent. The second part is where the patient is being treated and the third part is when the doctor is unable to keep him alive and the soldier becomes another casualty of war. We can tell that the tent is very close to the fighting because the first line reads, “A tent that is pitched at the base”. The ‘Case’ is brought in on a stretcher from a wagon.
We can tell that the soldier is in a great deal of pain from the line that reads, “The Infantry’s bearing the brunt”. It is again shown that the tent is pitched very close to the front line of fighting and that there are many wounded and injured inside the tent. “A mutter of guns at the front: A whimper of sobs at the rear” The last few lines of the stanza are those of the doctor. These lines are the ones that determine what has happened in the whole stanza. They sum up all the action through the eyes of the field doctor. “And it’s War! Orderly, hold the light.
You can lay him on the table: so. Easily – gently! Thanks – you may go. ‘ And it’s War! but the part that is not for show. ” From these lines we can see that there is an operating table in the tent. We can also see that the poem has been written to describe those things that are kept disclosed to the people at home. All the gruesomeness of war is really what comes through the field hospital. All the unsightly wounds and injuries are the things that are never shown or they are the things that are not usually associated with war fully.
This stanza shows that the doctors that go to help in the war had to be strong hearted and that the job was not for those who were very emotional. It describes the ugliness of war without even mentioning the injury or telling what has happened to the soldier. The second stanza starts off by describing the tent in brief, “A tent with a table athwart”. It also mentions the simplicity of the field hospital and the basic necessities that were provided to help revive the wounded, “A waterproof cover – and nought”. The next line is where mention is first made of the soldier’s injury, “limp, mangled work of a gun”.
The poem then goes to describing the table. “A bottle that’s stuck by the pole, A guttering dip in its neck; The flickering light of a soul” The table, as it is described in the poem, has a candle on one of its poles. However, mention of an actual candle is not made but it is described as the “flickering light of a soul”. It is shown as if the life of the man depends on this candle. If the candle went out then that would mean the death of the man. The word “flickering” shows that the man has a half chance of surviving. It is similar to the glimmering of the street lamp in Hardy’s A Wife in London.
This line of the poem may be referring to the man directly and has no relation whatsoever with the candle. But in any case, the main object and purpose of the poem is to show the fine chances of survival that this soldier has of surviving. The next line of the poem, “the wondering eyes of The Wreck”, does not address the injured man by any title but is rather referred to as a “Wreck” to show the frail condition that he is in and to show the worthlessness and the lifelessness of the man. It also shows that the man has become from a Case, at the beginning of the poem, to a Wreck in the middle of the poem.
It shows how just one injury could change the physical state of a man from able to disable in no time. The last few lines of the poem are those of the doctor and th