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Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

VETERAN, by         Recitation by Author         Poet's Biography

Fanny Howe’s "Veteran" is a meditation on belief, loss, and detachment. The poem’s speaker repeatedly asserts what they do not believe in, distancing themselves from common symbols of sentimentality, tradition, and material existence. The refrain "Some of the others do" underscores a sense of alienation—the speaker exists apart from the collective, resisting the values and rituals that give meaning to others.

The opening lines reject ashes, suggesting a refusal to acknowledge decay or the symbolic remnants of the past. This skepticism extends to hierarchies ("better or best") and sentimental emblems of renewal ("a thousand flowers or the first robin of the year")—things that others find meaningful, but which the speaker finds hollow. Even the pursuit of art ("seeking sheet music / by Boston Common on a snowy day") and the seasonal rituals of consumer culture ("the lighting of malls seasonably") fail to inspire belief.

The rejection continues with time itself: "When I?m sleeping I don?t believe in time as we own it, though some of the others might." This line introduces a dreamlike rupture from structured existence, suggesting that sleep—often a metaphor for death, transcendence, or even resistance—is a space where belief becomes irrelevant. The shift from material skepticism to a rejection of time itself hints at a deeper existential detachment.

Throughout the poem, the imagery evokes a winter landscape: "Sad lace on green. Veterans stamping the leafy snow." The presence of "veterans" suggests both literal former soldiers and figurative survivors—those who have endured loss and struggle. The phrase "Sad lace on green" evokes frost or bare trees, reinforcing the starkness of the speaker’s vision. Winter, often a symbol of dormancy and death, mirrors the speaker’s emotional and philosophical distance.

The refusal of belief extends to natural and aesthetic beauty: "I don?t believe in starlings of crenelated wings / I don?t believe in berries, red & orange, hanging on threadlike twigs." These delicate images—birds in flight, fragile berries—are traditionally imbued with poetic significance, yet the speaker refuses to invest them with meaning. This rejection of beauty intensifies the poem’s tone of emotional austerity.

The poem moves toward a rejection of human constructs: "I don?t believe in the light on the river / moving with it or the green bulbs hanging on the elms." Even light, which often represents guidance or transformation, holds no significance. The mention of "deep walls people live inside" suggests a critique of artificial boundaries—perhaps societal divisions, mental enclosures, or even prisons of ideology.

In the final lines, the speaker distances themselves from physical pleasures: "Some of the others believe in food & drink & perfume / I don?t." This renunciation of sensory indulgence aligns with the speaker’s broader detachment from worldly existence. The refusal of "shut-in time for those who committed a crime of passion" suggests an aversion to punishment or the moralizing of human impulses.

The poem’s closing metaphor, "Like a sweetheart of the iceberg or wings lost at sea," evokes vast, impersonal forces—an iceberg’s cold mass, the disappearance of wings over an endless ocean. The final assertion, "the wind is what I believe in, the One that moves around each form," presents a paradox: though the speaker has rejected nearly everything, they affirm belief in something intangible, transient, and formless. The wind, an invisible force, contrasts with the fixed beliefs the speaker has denied. It suggests movement, change, and an elemental presence beyond human constructs.

"Veteran" is a poem of resistance—against sentimentality, tradition, beauty, and even time. The speaker’s refusals create an almost monastic renunciation of earthly attachments, yet the final invocation of the wind hints at an alternative belief system—one rooted not in objects or rituals, but in the unseen, the untethered, the force that moves rather than defines. In rejecting what others accept, the speaker paradoxically asserts a belief of their own, finding meaning in impermanence rather than permanence.


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