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Stephen Crane's War Is Kind

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War is Kind is a poem written by 19th century journalist and author, Stephen Crane. In this poem, Crane shows the grief experienced by families who lost members in war and puts an ironic twist on war by calling it “kind”, when clearly, it is not. The poem reflects many universal themes of Civil War literature, such as the effects of warfare, the grief experienced by soldiers loved ones, and how patriotism is closely related to death and there is no sense in fighting for it. To begin, the first, third, and fifth stanzas of the poem demonstrate the grief felt by members of a family, when a soldier dies. In the first stanza, a wife is grieving after the loss of her husband. This is shown in lines 1 and 2 when the poem says, “Do not weep, maiden,

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