The Death of a Soldier
Encyclopedia
"The Death of a Soldier" is a poem from Wallace Stevens
's first book
of poetry, Harmonium
.The poem uses free verse
to describe the death of a soldier in a detached manner common among reductionist poets.
The poem's simplicity reinforces the naturalistic austerity
of its depiction of death. One interpretive choice point asks whether
Stevens is writing about any death, or rather, as Longenbach
asserts, the death of the soldier — "and not an ambiguously `fictive' soldier but Eugène Lemercier [the young French painter killed in 1915 whose letters were collected as Lettres d'un soldat and read by Stevens in the summer of 1917]." Longenbach claims that the poem's "utter bareness derives from the fact that Stevens was writing not about natural death ... but about a new kind of unnatural death, the daily death of thousands of soldiers on French battlefields."http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/steven/soldier.htm
One response to Longenbach's interpretation is to invoke Stevens's distinction between the true subject of a poem and the poetry of the subject, as he draws it in "The Irrational Element in Poetry".
Then Lemercier's death would be the true subject, and the poetry of the subject would be anyone's death.
"The Death of a Soldier" and other works by Stevens lead Bates to describe Stevens as "a war poet,
after his fashion," and Ramazani's "Stevens and the War Elegy" expands
on that idea, especially as it relates to post-Harmonium poems
that are informed by World War II.
Bates compares the poem to The Snow Man
,
particularly its final stanza, in which the snow man must be "nothing
himself" in order to behold "the nothing that is". In this respect
"The Death of a Soldier" adopts the snow man's point of view,
according to Bates. The soldier has a "Lockean mind"
:
"He is the sum of his impressions," Bates writes, "identical, in this
instance, with the nothing he does behold."
The soldier's "blank slate" (tabula rasa
) becomes a
blank, so to speak, leaving the clouds to go in their direction. Even
if Bates's reading strikes one as strained, the poem marks a departure
from Romantic and Victorian conceptions of death. Death is not
personified, for instance. (Compare Invective Against Swans
.)
The analogy between death and the season of autumn supports the
interpretive idea that Stevens's care about the weather is interwoven
with reflections on deeper themes such as death, the nature of time,
and so on. (See the issue between Vendler and Bloom in the main
Harmonium
essay, the section "The
musical Imagist".)
Buttel includes "The Death of a Soldier" as among a handful of
Harmonium
poems that most notably anticipate the "more reflective,
more meditative, more serene, but no less intense" poems of his later work,
not excluding "those magnificent, direct, fervent and profound poems
in The Rock at the end — and possibly the summit — of his
career".
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
's first book
of poetry, Harmonium
Harmonium (poetry collection)
Harmonium is a book of poetry by U.S. poet Wallace Stevens. His first book, it was published in 1923 by Knopf in an edition of 1500 copies. He was in middle age at that time, forty-four years old. The collection comprises 85 poems, ranging in length from just a few lines to several hundred...
.The poem uses free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
to describe the death of a soldier in a detached manner common among reductionist poets.
Overview
| The Death of a Soldier
|
The poem's simplicity reinforces the naturalistic austerity
of its depiction of death. One interpretive choice point asks whether
Stevens is writing about any death, or rather, as Longenbach
asserts, the death of the soldier — "and not an ambiguously `fictive' soldier but Eugène Lemercier [the young French painter killed in 1915 whose letters were collected as Lettres d'un soldat and read by Stevens in the summer of 1917]." Longenbach claims that the poem's "utter bareness derives from the fact that Stevens was writing not about natural death ... but about a new kind of unnatural death, the daily death of thousands of soldiers on French battlefields."http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/steven/soldier.htm
One response to Longenbach's interpretation is to invoke Stevens's distinction between the true subject of a poem and the poetry of the subject, as he draws it in "The Irrational Element in Poetry".
Now, just as the choice of subject is unpredictable at the outset, so its development, after it has been chosen, is unpredictable. One is always writing about two things at the same time in poetry and it is this that produces the tension characteristic of poetry. One is the true subject and the other is the poetry of the subject.
Then Lemercier's death would be the true subject, and the poetry of the subject would be anyone's death.
"The Death of a Soldier" and other works by Stevens lead Bates to describe Stevens as "a war poet,
after his fashion," and Ramazani's "Stevens and the War Elegy" expands
on that idea, especially as it relates to post-Harmonium poems
that are informed by World War II.
Bates compares the poem to The Snow Man
The Snow Man
"The Snow Man" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium. "The Snow Man" was first published in 1921 in the journal Poetry, volume 19, October 1921 and is in the public domain.-Overview:...
,
particularly its final stanza, in which the snow man must be "nothing
himself" in order to behold "the nothing that is". In this respect
"The Death of a Soldier" adopts the snow man's point of view,
according to Bates. The soldier has a "Lockean mind"
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
:
"He is the sum of his impressions," Bates writes, "identical, in this
instance, with the nothing he does behold."
The soldier's "blank slate" (tabula rasa
Tabula rasa
Tabula rasa is the epistemological theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. Generally proponents of the tabula rasa thesis favour the "nurture" side of the nature versus nurture debate, when it comes to aspects...
) becomes a
blank, so to speak, leaving the clouds to go in their direction. Even
if Bates's reading strikes one as strained, the poem marks a departure
from Romantic and Victorian conceptions of death. Death is not
personified, for instance. (Compare Invective Against Swans
Invective Against Swans
"Invective Against Swans" is a poem by Wallace Stevens from his first book of poetry, Harmonium .-Overview:The poem seems to be an insult poem slamming swans, of all things, calling them ganders and...
.)
The analogy between death and the season of autumn supports the
interpretive idea that Stevens's care about the weather is interwoven
with reflections on deeper themes such as death, the nature of time,
and so on. (See the issue between Vendler and Bloom in the main
Harmonium
Harmonium (poetry collection)
Harmonium is a book of poetry by U.S. poet Wallace Stevens. His first book, it was published in 1923 by Knopf in an edition of 1500 copies. He was in middle age at that time, forty-four years old. The collection comprises 85 poems, ranging in length from just a few lines to several hundred...
essay, the section "The
musical Imagist".)
Buttel includes "The Death of a Soldier" as among a handful of
Harmonium
Harmonium (poetry collection)
Harmonium is a book of poetry by U.S. poet Wallace Stevens. His first book, it was published in 1923 by Knopf in an edition of 1500 copies. He was in middle age at that time, forty-four years old. The collection comprises 85 poems, ranging in length from just a few lines to several hundred...
poems that most notably anticipate the "more reflective,
more meditative, more serene, but no less intense" poems of his later work,
not excluding "those magnificent, direct, fervent and profound poems
in The Rock at the end — and possibly the summit — of his
career".