Analysis Of Kooser's Oil Painting 'Veteran In A New Field'

The overall message in this poem is a drill sergeant educating young soldiers and preparing them for the harsh reality of war. He is not playing ‘Mr. nice guy’, he is being tough and strict to give the soldiers no easy way out.

He struggles to internalize his emotions, telling himself he is stone, like the granite memorial, a strong and steady reminder of the past, but he fails as he realizes the difference between him and the memorial: he is a living human being. He shares the darkness, the blackness, with the granite memorial, yet he can feel the full impact of this connection whereas a granite memorial cannot itself feel the pain that it directly represents. The overall moral of the poems is fairly up front for the reader. It is that war is not how stories make it sound, it is not honorable and fun and glorious, it is gruesome, deadly, and changes the lives of many young men and women who still had a lot of life and innocence left in front of them, and now all they will have are the memories of death and their friends dying in front of them. As Komuyakaa face becomes clear it now serves as a direct reminder of the emotional impact of his surroundings upon him, through mirroring his own face and also by simultaneously illuminating his surroundings and his silhouetted existence within these surroundings, reminding him that he stands within the Vietnam Memorial. This effect is described within the (lines 8-13) His constant turning and moving from angle to angle also suggests emotion as he cannot view the

Cruel and terrible events forever leave a mark on our memory. Especially, when these events are directly related to person, the memory reproduces every second of what happened. Unfortunately, humanity fully cognized the term of "war". "Facing it" by Yusef Komunyakaa reveals another several sides of the war. Poem tells the reader about which consequences, the war left and how changed people's lives. The hero identifies itself with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, mourns all those killed and who did not return. That is why the poem is dramatic. War has become a part of the hero's life, even after the ending.

In the middle of the poem, the speaker arrives at the number of casualties from the war. When he reads this number he can’t believe that he is still alive. As he reads down the names he uses the visual imagery and simile to describe how he expected to find his own name in “letters like smoke” (line 16). This helps the reader understand how lucky the speaker felt about somehow escaping the war still alive. As he goes

The author was giving a message then at the end of the poem it changes. He was giving the message that war happens to everybody and that they will have to go to war at some point in there life. The problem is that they don’t know the bourdon that it puts on the people that he has supported and been supported by until his son is sent of. He gets a totally different feeling when he doesn’t know what could happen to his son. He gets his message across by proving that every body has something to do with war wether they like it or not. Your parents might have been to war, if not them then your uncles, cousins, friends, or your neighbors(old men). Then if it isn’t them it could be your child who is going and the feeling is different, you lose the feeling of security when you cant protect your child. He

The poem was written to show that war is a waste of human life as the soldier knows he will die one day as well as the men around him, just some quicker than others. This can be evident in stanza four of the poem: “I know I’ll join them somewhere, one day.” The language used is more casual than formative, this is effective as it shows the personal feelings and thoughts of the soldier during the time

“Facing It” a powerful sonnet, brings both exact and metaphorical meanings to the reader. As seen in “I see the booby trap’s white flash,” (18) where there is no room for a different interpretation, but a flashback; which invites the reader into the world of war. It is up to the vet to see himself as something other than a man of war and the Vietnam Memorial allows them to release their pain into the stone, the black granite; releasing the empty pain that is carried for years. “[H]alf-expecting to find / my own [name] in the letter” (15, 16) and the portrayal of “I am a window” (27) allows others to see through the vet what a veteran took away from the war. Not all came back whole either mind or body and Komunyakaa displays this within the reference of “his right arm / inside the stone” (28, 29) and how this soldier wishes the names and pain could be erased by the simple movement of a

This is highlighted through Clayton’s use of rhyme as the last two verses - “The Anzac marches he badly neglected,” and “Would show to his comrades how he was rejected” - are especially important as the reader realises that the soldier is now an outcast in both the white and black communities. In response to this rejection, the soldier “sold all his medals he once proudly wore” as “They were of no use to him any more”. Like Clayton’s poem, the melancholic tone of “The Photograph” is the same as the one in “The Black Rat” despite the vastly different events unfolding. Kocan’s poem takes a turn for the worst as it describes what happens to the family once they are informed of Jim’s death, using a hyperbole technique in “Makes something die in all of them” in reference to the family’s reaction to the news of his

The memories and feelings that the memorial brings forth from the veteran are the driving force to the tone of the poem. The poems is heavy and heartbreaking. It clearly shows that the visit to the memorial has an enormous impact on the author. The author describes several different visions he has while at the memorial. The visions that he has are as real to him as if they were physically present. The author makes it easy to see and feel things through his eyes. The words used to describe his thoughts and feeling evoke emotions of sadness and at times, even despair.

The poem can be interpreted as an allegory on how the war has impacted the veteran, and how the wall is not simply a wall. The allegory begins with the speaker looking at the black granite wall. There is a clear division between the actual visit and the veteran’s struggle at the wall. Since his “black face fades” into the wall, it shows that he is one with the “black granite.” He, alongside the wall, is evidence of history. He is living proof of what has happened in the war, and the names show the result of the war. To emphasize this connection, the veteran describes himself as “stone” and “flesh.” Since the veteran is still alive, he views himself as the flesh, but believes he should be the stone. Just like he is impacted by the wall, he believes that other people feel the same impact. The veteran believes this when he mentions “names shimmer on a woman’s blouse” (l. 19). The names on the woman’s blouse show, that as each individual person goes to the wall, a special connection happens between the two. It is almost like the people become one with the wall, sharing their feelings with one another. However, the connection is lost as the woman “walks away the names stay on the wall” (ll. 20-21). Once a person leaves the wall, that connection is gone. People leave and return back to “reality.” However, this is not the case with the veteran. This vision states that the veteran

On Painting by Leon Alberti is, in essence, a book of guidelines for novice painters. Alberti explains that since paintings are meant to represent things that are seen, they need also be approached this way. In his theory, he breaks up the way of painting into three important components circumscription, composition, and the reception of light. Within these three are guidelines for the portrayal of subjects, spaces and emotion.

Poets frequently utilize vivid images to further depict the overall meaning of their works. The imagery in “& the War Was in Its Infancy Then,” by Maurice Emerson Decaul, conveys mental images in the reader’s mind that shows the physical damage of war with the addition of the emotional effect it has on a person. The reader can conclude the speaker is a soldier because the poem is written from a soldier’s point of view, someone who had to have been a first hand witness. The poem is about a man who is emotionally damaged due to war and has had to learn to cope with his surroundings. By use of imagery the reader gets a deeper sense of how the man felt during the war. Through the use of imagery, tone, and deeper meaning, Decaul shows us the

causes the poem to flow, and thus lightens up the dark and serious issue of war. The lines "But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place." are easy to read; however, their meaning is extremely

The point of the poem was to deliver the horrors of war to the public

“He’s lost his color far from here”. This line gives the reader a true image of how horrific military wounds could be. The irony that the soldier of the poem “liked a blood smear down his leg” then becomes rather depressing for the reader. This irony also suggests to the reader how foolish the subject is, due to his want of a “blood smear” and then, ironically he obtains “a leap of purple spurted from his thigh”. As well as graphical contrasts, there are also cases of contrasts between atmospheres before and after the war. It is shown that pre war, majority of the community was more joyful; “voices of play and pleasure.” Now however, it seems to be solemn as seen in “Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn.” This line symbolizes a disheartening atmosphere and also has connotations of a funeral which, once again, proves the horrors of war portrayed by Wilfred