25 English -- The Gift in Wartime

What imagery from the poem made the greatest impression on you? Why?

1 Answers

Tran's poem is full of images related to war and love. Roses, wedding gowns, tomb with green grass, medals, clouds, dress soaked in blood, the lifeless body and shrapnel are some obvious examples of imagery used in the poem. Among these, imagery of shrapnel made the greatest impression on me. I think the object of my choice expresses the bitterness of war most clearly. This image indicates that war has broken the speaker's life truly reflected by the tool to inflict the same.

Who is the speaker addressing and why can that person not hear or understand what she is saying?

The speaker is addressing to her husband. That person cannot hear nor understand what she is saying because he is not alive.

What can you infer about the speaker's feelings for the person addressed as "you"?

Her feelings for that person is full of love affection and devotion.

What is the speaker's attitude toward war?

The attitude of speaker toward the war is bitter and full of sadness.

In what ways do you think this person's fate has affected the speaker?

This person i.e. speaker's husband died in the war. As she has lost her husband, the speaker is alone in this world and she needs to bear all the sufferings. In this way, the person's fate has affected the speaker.

What does the speaker promise at the end of the poem? Why do you think the speaker does this?

At the end of the poem, the speaker promise her husband to meet him in their next life.

I think speaker loves her husband so deep that she doesn't want to be apart even in their next life.

What is the theme of the poem?

The theme of the poem is the love,affection, devotion and melancholy to the husband who had died in the war.

Which figurative language is used in the poem? Explain with examples.

The theme of "The Gift in Wartime" is to mourn the sadness and futility of lives lost in war. In the poem, the speaker, who has to faced the death of her beloved husband in a war, speaks directly to him, contrasting what she has offered and what she received.

In the poem, many figurative speech such as irony, imagery, anaphora, apostrophe are used. Irony takes place when the poet talks about the gift which is not a real gift but is infact grief and loss and sorrow. A grave and shrapnel as...

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