‘Song of Napalm’ and my life experiences
It often happens that literature leaves us pondering over things that happen in our life. It
won’t be wrong to say that some works leave us intrigued and even intimidated. It varies
from person to person, the effect that literary works have on the mind. When I talk about
myself, few literary works, especially a few poems, have always left me thinking about the
ways of life. Here, I would like to mention that Bruce Weigl’s ,”song of Napalm”, has always
been one of my much admired poem and the one poem that I have been able to relate to
The poem is meant to convey the wicked realities seen by soldiers during the Vietnam War
and how those events have an effect on them for the rest of their
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Today, I am a 10th grader and work part time in Mc Donald’s to earn my living and get a
pocket money to survive because I cannot be depending on my parents for my finances.
Working in Mc Donald taught me how to survive the harsh realities and face the truth. I
often wander back and think about the warm and cosy time I spent with my family back in
Ethiopia. However, my job is a hard hitting reminder of my life’s reality.
In the poem, the narrator goes through a huge wave of emotions and memories. He has
used strong words like Scarlett. The word is often used to depict the colour of fresh blood.
However, in the poem it connotes the bloody memories of the poet just like I experience in
flashes of memories running to my brain. Also, my introvert nature makes me never express
my mind just like this soldier who cannot say out things loud but just battles with his
thoughts by taking support of the good things in life, like his wife.
All in all, the poem continues to motivate and inspire me and I as a student can highly relate
to it. This poem is not just about war for me, but also life in general. It is a teacher and
continues to
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.
The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the
The memories in the poem maintain a cohesiveness and continuity of experience through repeated motifs such as the violets and the ‘whistling’. Memories also give us a recovered sense of life, as shown through the final line of the poem ‘faint scent of violets drifts in air’. This example of sensory imagery also creates a rhythmic drifting sense linked closely to the “stone-curlews call from Kedron Brook”. It echoes images of the speaker’s mind drifting into reflection and aurally creates transience between the present and the past.
This is the poem that Jim Northrup wrote about war. I am going to Explicate the poem and
Literature is an essential part of the center of a person’s life. It provides a certain assurance and “feeds the soul” of one. Whether it be a book, TV, or even an advertisement, literature exists everywhere. A person is able to develop many skills by studying literature, and expand the horizon of their learning. An immeasurable amount of insight and knowledge can be gained from the study of literature which contributes in providing readers with an understanding of the past, and a philosophical assimilation of the moral behind a writing piece.
mind. It suggest the poet see it as love or nothing and that he was
“Attack” The poem “Attack” is about how the war is from the inside of the battlefield. The poem explains the battlefield like it is a terrible place to be in and experience. It explains war as this living hell where there is nothing but fire, smoke, loud noises and gunfire. The planes roaring as they hover over the battlefield and lower to the ground to drop bombs and gunfire, body parts are flying over the fields, tanks are slowly creeping over the hills, the only expressions on the soldiers’ faces are anger and fear; it’s chaos.
b) I think this poem is protesting about the war and all its horrors, giving an account of the war, and warning against the glorification of
The author uses many different poetic tools, such as imagery and structure, to convey the theme of facing memories. In the beginning of the poem the narrator looks over the names of fallen comrades in the stone wall of the Vietnam War Memorial. From the very first lines
I really like how you present small snapshots of the narrator’s life and environment through each ‘couplet’/pairing of lines within this poem. However, I feel as though you are limited by the shortness of the poem, as you are not able to provide further details. I would recommend further fleshing out and developing the poem, if you feel that it is necessary or at all beneficial, but nevertheless, you are certainly able to convey a plethora of ideas in only seven lines—wonderful job!
“He frequently presents his poetry as the outgrowth of occasions on which objects or events in the present trigger a sudden renewal of feelings that he has experienced in
The poem is about the return of our troops and the support we give them. In the poem they are talking about how it affects the soldiers and their families. They also talk about the public’s reaction and how they just don’t understand, because they haven’t been where they were. Higher ranked officials take advantage of the soldiers or young people going into war. The soldiers fight for peace and don’t get it in return.
While reading this poem readers have a great sense of empathy for the actions taking place. It forces us to think about what exactly do solider go through and ways they can be more appreciated after returning from war. It allows us to emphasize with the narrator for his struggles and appreciate all that active duty soldiers as well as veterans do for this country. Mental illness from war is real and I encourage everyone to it just enough importance they would a physical injury. Soldier should have the right to seek medical attention after returning from war without it being frowned upon. Everyone copes differently and while one soldier’s okay with not speaking about his experience the other might need a listening ear to release all of that
Use of free verse in this poem creates a lack of structure that appears to parallel the soldier’s own lack of structure and direction in his own life after he leaves the war. The poem begins with the image of a soldier's and his squadron raiding a farmhouse:
The poem begins with the narrator's describing the poem as a 'dream' that ''was not at all a dream'', which already causes doubt and tension within the reader. The narrator then goes on to talk about