My next poem up for analysis is “All the Dead Soldiers” written about World War II by Thomas McGrath. This poem was published in 1967 in Poetry. I thought this poem was interesting because it focused on the habit of the dead. In previous poems I analyzed, the men were in the process of fighting. In this poem the event has long passed. The effects, however, are still raging on.
The speaker of the poem is an outside figure who has the ability to watch the ghosts from the war, and by his sentimental tone, he feels sorry for the dead soldiers. The “ghost bank” in the second line of the second stanza is even deeper referred to as “home” for the soldiers. This area, the island of Amchitka in Alaska(Alaska’s Digital Archives) was where they died, and it is their resting place. That line gave e a sense of detachment on the soldiers part, by the effect of war they have been ripped from the homes they once possessed, they can no longer reside with their families or friends. They can only live and wander with their dead comrades.
The speaker describes the dead as tired; they have endured a long journey. The endpoint is far away, and they are hesitant to go on. The rain and wind are like living obstacles that cause the bones to stiffen and become effaced. Yet they continue until they reach their destination.
The dead seem to be angry by the fact that they must stay in their new home. In the first stanza, there is anger in the wind; the wind blows hard because it is infused with the bones of the dead. As a unit, they burst from the sky. It is a sort of contained rage that can only be expressed in death. It cannot be seen by any living soul but the speaker. And in the last stanza of the poem, when they have reached their destination, they are “crying weak lust and rage.” Hey have reached their old homes, but time has passed. Life has gone on. The lives that they knew and experienced when they were alive have shifted in the time space. They were young when they died, and as years have passed, they room that they once lived in are aged. And worst of all, their women, whether they be wives or not, have aged as well. The voices of the dead cannot be heard, and they must go on with the fact that nothing will ever be as it was before the war. Life has gone on without them.
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I like where you have gone with this poem. You looked at it from a different angle which most people probably wouldn't notice. You used analysis to show the struggle that the ghosts of the dead are going through. It is as if their spirits are living on as they would have if they were still alive. However, they still run into obstacles of not being able to leave the place at which they were put to rest. Instead of being with their family and friends they are stuck with their comrades of which they died fighting beside. Nice description of the poem.
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