The chosen Poem. The War in the Air

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College
October 19, 2012
Part One: Introduction Check List
The chosen Poem
The War in the Air [Page 1071]
By Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)
For a saving grace, we did not see our dead,
Who rarely bothered coming home to die
But simply stayed away out there
In the clean war, the war in the air.
Seldom have the ghosts come back bearing their tales
Of hitting the earth, the incompressible sea,
But stayed up there in the relative wind,
Shades fading in the mind,
Who had no graves but only epitaphs
Where never so many spoke for never so few:
Per ardua, said the partisans of Mars,
Per aspera, to the stars.
That was the good war, the war we won
As if there was no death, for goodness's sake.
With the help of the losers we left out there
In the air, in the empty air.
1.0 Line by Line Interpretation
The War in the Air [Page 1071]
For a saving grace, we didn't see our dead,-(We are grateful we were spared the pain of seeing our dead comrades)
Who rarely bothered coming home to die- (Soldiers did no survive after war to come and die at home as an aftermath of the war)
But simply stayed away out there- (They died in the war and their bodies were no where to be recovered)
In the clean war, the war in the air. (For soldiers who fought in the air, their bodies were lost in the vastness of the universe)
Seldom have the ghosts come back bearing their tales (Even the spirits of the soldiers who died in the air did not attest to their death)
Of hitting the earth, the incompressible sea-(of the horrors associated with hitting the sea from above)
But stayed up there in the relative wind, (The spirits were left to hang in the oblivion)
Shades fading in the mind-(The dead soldiers remained as pigments of imaginations to those who survived the war)
Who had no graves but only epitaphs (Only symbols marked their death, for there were no bodies to be buried)
Where never so many spoke for never so few (There were no people to speak on the behalf of the dead soldiers, for only few survived)
Per ardua, said the partisans of Mars (Through difficulties to the mars)
Per aspera, to the stars. (Through difficulties to the stars)
That was the good war, the war we won (the remaining soldiers were acclaimed to win the war)
As if there was no death, for goodness's sake. (Whilst they celebrate the victory, some of the soldiers lost their lives)
With the help of the losers we left out there (The soldiers who did not make it, lost the battle and they were left in vacuum)
In the air, in the empty air. (hanging in unknown place, in the air)
2.0 Poem Paraphrase
We went out to fight
But not all of us made it back home
Some of our soldiers died in the battlefield
And because of that they did not come back home to nurse the
Wounds inflicted by war atrocities
Those who died in the air
They became a forgotten lot
As their bodies were swallowed by the water
Or disappeared in the air
After the war, there were no bodies to be buried
So epitaphs were erected in honor of the dead soldiers
The soldiers who made us to win the difficult war
By their demise and loss we won
Every body exclaims that it was a good war
But was it a good war when we lost our own
And left their bodies in the vastness of the air?
We became winners because they lost
And they are still lost somewhere in the thin air.
3.0 Poem Summary
The author complains that they went for a war and lost many soldiers who fought in the air. Sadly, their bodies were not recovered and neither did they get decent burials for there were no bodies to be buried. After such a huge loss of soldiers and the difficulties they incurred in the battlefield, people celebrate and say that they worn the war. The author is convinced, the winning was unfair for it was at the expense of the soldiers who lost their lives and who never even got decent burial. Such cannot be winning!
Part Two: Tone Check List
The tone of this poem is melancholic, sad and sober. The poet laments about the atrocities of the war. As the author highlights the atrocities of the war and the ensuing repercussions, he is fast to denote that there is nothing to win in war because war is mere loss. For the veterans who survive the war, the society does not give them the regard and recognition they deserve. In war, many men, husband, brothers and sons lose their lives and all for the other people to celebrate victory! There is much pain accompanied with the loss and the grieve which comes as a result of losing the soldiers in the war. The surviving soldiers do not see anything “victorious” about the war because it leads to loss of lives and the survivors. The lament of a surviving soldier is that the society has nothing to celebrate because it maims and destroys its own through the wars and when lives are lost and people don’ even get decent burials there is nothing to celebrate about the war.
Part Three: Word Choice Check List
Through poetry many ideas a concentrated together to express an incidence or intended meaning. Poetry uses words economically watch out to maintain the rhythm and stance of the poem. In order to express an idea accurately, words must be used specifically to present the intended idea. The words used in “The War in the Air” carry weight of meaning. Through the vivid words, the author is able to create imagery. For instance, when the poet uses these words “Of hitting the earth the incompressible sea But stayed up there in the relative wind”. The reader gets the feel of the soldiers dying out in the air and their ghosts do not even come to attest to their existence in the sea as they are just abandoned in the nothingness with no body bothering to establish where their bodies are.
Some words are also used in the poem to maintain certain rhythm or rhyme for instance in stanza three we get the words “wind and mind”  and the fourth stanza has “mars and stars” these words are deliberately chooses to create a particular rhythm to the poem and set a backdrop for the poem’s mood. Some of the words used in the poem have a symbolic importance, for instance  “Who had no graves but only epitaphs” This phrase is intended to portray the message that some soldiers died in the air and their bodies were not recovered hence they could not be buried in their graves only epitaphs symbolized their death. Some of the words used in this poem give it weight of meaning so that it creates a lasting impression on the reader. “With the help of the losers we left out there” Here the poet wants to imply that they won the war because they lost men in the air. By losing those men, they were declared winners and the most sorrowful part of the story is “we left there” They died and there bodies were strewn into the thin air and that is how victory was attained.
Part Four: HYPERLINK "https://blackboard.wku.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/uploadAssignment?content_id=_2418638_1&course_id=_101135_1&assign_group_id=&mode=view"
Saying and Suggesting Checklist
A saying offers practical truth or implication. In this poem, there are some of the sayings that have been used to educe the deeper meaning of the poem. “Who rarely bothered coming home to die” There is a sarcastic undertone to this saying; because the poet implies even those who survived the war seemed to come home to die. The society has in essence not been keen to understand the aftermath of being involved in a war. Even though people may boast and exclaim that they have won the war, they never take time to consider the challenges of being in a war or the psychological process a veteran has to go through after surviving the war. “In the clean war, the war in the air” Fighting in the air is very perilous because there is no hiding place, those who are flying the planes cannot hide under thicket or in valleys for they fight the clean war. For that matter, they become easy target and when they are maimed, the chances of survival are nil.
Part Five: Imagery Check List
The poet has used some of the words in the poem to etch an imagination and create pictures, colors and sounds in relation to the message he is relaying. Imagery in this poem evokes a feeling of sadness and the emptiness associated with the consequences of war. “But simply stayed away out there” The reader gets this image of dead bodies hanging out there in the vastness with no one to discover them, or may be too tattered to be recognized as human bodies. “Of hitting the earth, the incompressible sea” the poet laments that even the ghosts of the dead soldiers do not materialize to inform people whether the dead bodies of the soldiers hit the ground or they were swallowed by the sea. “Incompressible” is the word which brings the image of insatiable sea, a vast mass of water always swallowing the dead because it is huge enough to accommodate all of them. Such words gives the sea a touch of personification and in the mind of the reader the sea is seen as the hideout where the dead soldiers are swallowed together with their ghosts never to materialize.
Part Six: Figures of Speech
Through the various figures of speech utilized in poetry, words are used out of their literal meaning in order to evoke emotions, sentiments or beauty to the work of poetry. Some of the figures of speech used in this poem include:-
Hyperbole: “Seldom have the ghosts come back bearing their tales” Here the writer complains that even the ghosts of the dead soldiers never appear to the living and tell them tales concerning the fallen soldiers. It appears here as if the poet expects the ghosts to show up and talk to the living.
Personification: “In the clean war” The war is given the attribute of “clean” just like human, the poet uses this figure of speech to portray the environment surrounding war in the air. It is clean because there are no barriers or places to hide the target is vulnerable and can be hit easily by the enemies.
Part Seven: Sound Check List
The poet uses rhythm to significantly stress the articulation of the words in the poem for instance “ That was the good war, the war we won” the continuous use of the letter “w” in this sentence creates alliteration and gives the poem a meter which stresses the point that the poet is passing across. Moreover, the poet has uses one syllable words to stress his points and message across. The wordings in this poem have been stressed so that accents are occurring at certain intervals. Notice this “Per ardua, said the partisans of M[ars], Per aspera, to the st[ars] the rhythm is defined by the placing of the words in a sequential order so that [per] appears at the beginning of the stanza while [ars] is seen at the end of the stanza.
Through syllable, alteration, repletion, the sound of the poem is created as there are notes that are stressed and...