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Chapter 5 The Gift in Wartime
Class 11 English
Exercise
Tran Mong Tu
Theme
In terms of the central idea, this frame presents the close
connection between nature and childhood. A child is very close to
nature but as he grows up this connection is disturbed. A child is
capable of perceiving beauty and astonishment in the world of
nature. In terms of the context, the speaker remembers his
childhood days when he as a child looked at the setting sun in
November through the window.
In terms of rhyme scheme, we have abided in other words the first
line rhymes with third-line second rhymes with the fourth line, and
so on.
About Poetress
Name: Tran Mong Tu
Nationality: Vietnamese
Birth: 19 December 1943
Birthplace: North Vietnam
Theme
The poem has the theme of lamentation for the loss and meaninglessness of
lives lost in war. She has presented the very bad impact of war on humans. She
has shown her grief, loneliness, and terrible picture of war which snatched all
her happiness of life.
Main Summary
The poet has used a very satirical title for those who give more importance to
the power and demands for war rather than their lives. This poem presents a very clear vision of suffering and lamentation for the loss. Here, the speaker is
a widow and through her character, she presents the painful feelings of her
lonely life. So she wants to relay the message that war never provides
happiness it provides gifts as death, blood, pain, suffering, loss, etc. The poet
has presented this poem in seven stanzas.
First Stanza
In the first stanza, the speaker is offering roses to be buried in a new grave of
her husband who recently died in the war. She also offers her wedding gown to
cover the tomb which is still green with grass. Here, the speaker relates this
stanza with her deep love and her feelings for her husband.
Second Stanza
In the second stanza, she talks about his bravery. Her husband was awarded
the medals with the silver stars and yellow pips on the badge are still shining
with the pride of his bravery. But now these awards are of no use and it is
meaningless with his death.
Third Stanza
In the third stanza, she remembers her youth days where she offered her youth
to him as a wife. They were in deep love but with the bad news of her
husband’s death, the youth and her love life also end at her young age.
Fourth Stanza
The fourth stanza is related to the war zone where many soldiers died and for
her, the dress of war only provides her with blood in return. War only brings a
bad result for humans. It brings sorrow, pain, suffering, death, etc.
Fifth Stanza
In the fifth stanza, she presents her grief. She remembers her lovable person.
with his death, her springtime of life has become cold, her eyes are filled with
tears as the clouds in summer. She presents her deep sorrow.
Sixth Stanza
In the sixth stanza, she presents the effects and her pitiable condition. Now her
lovable person has left her lips without a smile, arms without tenderness, eyes
without sight, and the body without motion.
Seventh Stanza
So in the final stanza, she promises to meet him again in their next life and
they can recognize each other by the shrapnel which indicates the picture of
war and the causes of death.
Conclusion
So this poem presents the inhumanity and cruelty of war and its negative
impact over a human with their dark future.
The Gift in Wartime – Complete Exercise
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. Who is the speaker addressing and why can that person not hear or
understand what she is saying?
Answer: The speaker is addressing her husband. He cannot hear or understand
what she is saying because he is dead.
b. What can you infer about the speaker’s feelings for the person addressed as
“you”?
Answer: Her feelings for that person she addresses as “you” is full of love,
affection and devotion. She has gifted him all the pleasures of life. She is
saddened by his demise. Although he is no more in the world, she is still
hopeful to meet him in their next life.
c. What is the speaker’s attitude toward war?
Answer: The speaker has bitter attitude towards war as she has lost her
husband.
d. In what ways do you think this person’s fate has affected the speaker?
Answer: This person’s fate was to die in war because he was a soldier. The
speaker’s happiness and youth ended with his death. Thus, the ill-fate of the
person has made her helpless, loveless and miserable.
e. What does the speaker promise at the end of the poem? Why do you think
the speaker does this?
Answer: At the end of the poem, the speaker promises to meet her lovable
person in their next life. She wants to take shrapnel as a proof to show him the
reason behind his death and their separation. I think the speaker does this
because of her love for the absent person is so deep and she wants to be in love
with him again and again.
Reference to the context
a. What is the theme of the poem?
Answer: The theme of the poem is the cruelty and inhumanity of the war and
its negative impacts over humans. The poem talks about the tragedy caused by
war. One life ends but many others are affected. After the untimely death of
the soldier, his family and dear ones will suffer. Life is priceless, so there is no
compensation for this great loss.
b. What imagery from the poem made the greatest impression on you? Why?
Answer: The poet has used several powerful images in this poem. Among them
all, I liked the shrapnel image the most. It made it very clear what gift a war
can give to human beings. The shrapnel does not only mean that it shattered
the body of the soldier, but also shattered the life of the beloved. That is the
deadly gift of the war.
c. Which figurative language is used in the poem? Explain with examples.
Answer: Figurative language is phrasing that the goes beyond the literal
meaning of words to get a message. We find the use of irony, apostrophe,
anaphora, and metaphor as the figurative language here in this poem.
Irony takes place when the poet talks about the gift which is not a real gift but
of grief and loss. A grave and shrapnel as tokens of remembrance are the
examples of it.
The poet uses imagery when roses are offered in her beloved’s grave, and her
husband is described as a corpse with lips with no smile and eyes with no
sight. The red roses traditionally symbolize love.
The next figure of speech is anaphora, which is the repetition of the same
words at the beginning of a line. In the first, third and fifth stanzas, the poet
repeats “I offer you” and coming to the sixth stanza where the speaker repeats
“you give me” three times in a row. These are the examples of anaphora used
in this poem.
The poem also utilizes the apostrophe literary technique that is addressed
directly to a non-present person or an inanimate object. Like in the poem, the
speaker confronts the dead corpse of her spouse.
d. What does the speaker “offer” in this poem? What does the person
addressed as “you” give in return?
Answer: The speaker offers various things like roses, her wedding gown, her
youth, clouds, cold winters etc. to her lovable person. The person addressed as
“you” gives her the medals with shining stars, badge with yellow pips, the
smell of blood from wardress, lips without a smile, arms without tenderness,
eyes without sight, and body without motion.
e. An apostrophe is a literary device in which a writer or speaker addresses an
absent person or an abstract idea in such a way as if it were present and can
understand. Discuss the poem in relation to apostrophe.
Answer: An apostrophe is a literary device in which a writer or speaker
addresses an absent person or an abstract idea in such a way as if it were
present and can understand. Here in the poem, we can see the use of an
apostrophe when the speaker addresses the dead body as if he can understand
her. She offers him red roses and her wedding gown at his grave. Her youth
has ended with his death. His badge, bravery medals and the blood from his
dress make her sad. Her eyes are full like summer clouds and her life has
changed from spring to winter. She wants to prove her deep love and respect
for her husband by showing her sacrifice. Thus, this poem has shown the
bitterness of war on behalf of the speaker using the apostrophe.
Reference beyond the text
a. One way to get relief from grief is to write or talk about it. In your opinion,
how might the speaker in this poem have benefited from saying what she did?
Explain.
Answer: One way to get relief from grief is to write or talk about it. Grief is
caused by loss. In emotional situation a person can get relief by talking with
dear one. We can share our pain to other by writing poem, stories, etc. or
sharing our experiences with other. The speaker in this poem has also chosen
the same path. She has become able to reduce her pain and suffering by
talking with her dead husband.
Happiness and pain are an inevitable part of human life. In our life, we must
experience both sides of life. We must find a way to cope with the grief and
move on with our life. The speaker is talking to her husband who was killed in
war. She offers him red roses and her wedding gown at his grave. Her youth
has ended with his death. His badge, bravery medals and the blood from his
dress make her sad. Her eyes are full like summer clouds. Her life is changed
from spring to winter. She wants to prove her deep love and respect for her
husband by showing her sacrifice. In this way, the speaker becomes able to
cope with her deep pain by talking with her dead husband.
b. Write an essay on the effects of war.
Answer:
Effects of War
The effects of war are widely spread and can be long term or short term.
Soldiers experience war differently than civilians, although either suffer in
times of war, and women and children suffer unspeakable atrocities in particular. In the past decade, up to two million of those killed in armed
conflicts were children. The widespread trauma caused by these atrocities and
suffering of the civilian population is another legacy of these conflicts, the
following creates extensive emotional and psychological stress. Present-day
internal wars generally take a larger toll on civilians than state wars. This is
due to the increasing trend where combatants have made targeting civilians a
strategic objective. A state conflict is an armed conflict that occurs with the use
of armed force between two parties, of which one is the government of a state.
“The three problems posed by intra‐state conflict are the willingness of UN
members, particularly the strongest member, to intervene; the structural
ability of the UN to respond; and whether the traditional principles of
peacekeeping should be applied to intra‐state conflict”. Effects of war also
include mass destruction of cities and have long lasting effects on a country’s
economy. Armed conflict has important indirect negative consequences on
infrastructure, public health provision, and social order. These indirect
consequences are often overlooked and unappreciated.
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