This poem seems to be from Owen's deathbed, although it says it was written in 1917 and Owen died in 1918. As I read this poem over, what strikes me the most is switch in tones throughout the poem. I find that this switch is very representative of how people are once they find out that they will die: they are bitter, they regret and miss all the things they didn't do and will not be able to do, they beg for another way to live, and then they accept it.
At first, the speaker is complaining about how much his "arms", "fingers", and "back" have been in pain "for hours" and he can't relax because "Death never gives... a stand-at-ease"(1-4). He complains that he "can't read", bitterly returns the book, and sarcastically, thanks whoever by wishing them "a short life and a merry one" (5, 6). This tart tone and attitude is quite different from the rest of the poem, where the speaker is begging for his life.
I think there should be a break in the stanza in between lines six and seven. In line seven, the speaker begins seems not to be bitter about dieing, but rather remorseful that his life is ending. Contrary from his youth, “not to live old seems awful” (8). He ponders on “the arts of hurting” which he will not be able to teach his “boys” and “renew/ [his] boyhood”(8-10). Towards the end of the first stanza he switches to begging for life, for just “one spring”, which might just be “too long”.
The second stanza shifts once again, to a surrendering tone, where he would become “a sweep’s boy”, “a muckman”, “ a flea”, or even “dear dust” (26-29). Now that he is faced with death, he doesn’t mind lowering himself to any of the preceding things which clearly carry a lower position than his.
I must admit that the last statement of the second stanza confused me. What does he mean by “If one chap wasn’t bloody/, or went stone-cold, I’d find another body” (29, 30)? Does he mean that he would go into the friend (Siegfried Sassoon, as mentioned at the beginning of the poem) and live through him and his poetry?
I didn't understand it as being written from Owen's deathbed so much as from the speaker's deathbed. The speaker seems to go through many of the psychological stages we typically associate with grief, but in this case it is sadness that his own life is ending, not another's. He becomes angry- "my back's been stiff for hours, damned hours-" he bargains- "for just two years to help myself to this good air of yours-" and he talks in a depressed manner- "climb your throat on sobs" (3, 13-14, 34). This tone is interesting and unique in the scope of Owen's poetry, as there is relatively little irony- what the dying man wants, like teaching his "boys" "hitting, shooting, and hunting," and what he feels is genuine (9-10).
ReplyDeleteI was also confused by certain aspects of the end of the poem. It seems that, in his last dying breath, the man has become something of a parasite, trying to "find another body" to inhabit, to "stay in" a "friend, for some hours" (30-32). Perhaps this segment is representative of the strong will to live; even when one dies, it lives on in another?
The comment 'If one chap wasn't bloody/Or went stone-cold, I'd find another body' makes sense if you read the previous reference to a 'flea'. He is not only ready to become a muckman, somebody doing menial jobs, in order to remain alive, but even a 'flea' will do. A flea has more possibilities of survival.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible he wrote this poem during his deathbed and i do agree that this explains the regrets of the dying. In lines 13-15, it seems like the speaker is somehow blaming god for his death or praying god for wanting to live longer which, in my opinion, seemed sad.
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