Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Randall Jarrell's poem "A Lullaby" offers a somber and poignant reflection on the life of a soldier, encapsulating the sacrifices, dehumanization, and existential disconnection experienced during wartime. Through its concise and evocative language, the poem delves into the harsh realities of a soldier's existence far from home, emphasizing the profound sense of loss and alienation that accompanies the life of military service.

The poem begins with a stark portrayal of the soldier's sacrifice: "For wars his life and half a world away / The soldier sells his family and days." These lines immediately highlight the immense personal cost of war, where the soldier's commitment to the battlefield comes at the expense of his familial bonds and the normal passage of time. The use of "sells" suggests a transactional nature to this sacrifice, emphasizing that the soldier's life and time are commodities exchanged for participation in the war effort.

The next lines capture the paradoxical nature of the soldier's role: "He learns to fight for freedom and the State; / He sleeps with seven men within six feet." Here, Jarrell underscores the irony that the soldier fights for lofty ideals such as freedom and the state, yet his daily reality is one of cramped quarters and close physical proximity to other soldiers. This juxtaposition highlights the discrepancy between the soldier's ideals and the stark, often uncomfortable reality of military life.

The poem continues with a depiction of the soldier's mundane and degrading tasks: "He picks up matches and he cleans out plates, / Is lied to like a child, cursed like a beast." These lines emphasize the menial and demeaning aspects of military service, where the soldier's duties are trivial and his treatment is both infantilizing and dehumanizing. The simile "lied to like a child, cursed like a beast" starkly contrasts innocence and animalistic treatment, further emphasizing the soldier's dehumanization.

The imagery of "dog tags ring like sheep / As his stiff limbs shift wearily to sleep" reinforces the notion of the soldier as part of a dehumanized collective, likening him to livestock identified and herded by his dog tags. The weariness in "stiff limbs shift wearily to sleep" captures the physical exhaustion and the mechanical nature of his existence, where even rest is marked by discomfort and rigidity.

In the final stanza, Jarrell delves into the soldier's internal and emotional dislocation: "Recalled in dreams or letters, else forgot, / His life is smothered like a grave, with dirt." This metaphor suggests that the soldier's true self and personal life are buried under the weight of his wartime experiences, obscured and forgotten except in fleeting moments of memory or correspondence. The comparison to a grave evokes a sense of finality and loss, implying that his pre-war identity is essentially dead.

The concluding lines, "And his dull torment mottles like a fly’s / The lying amber of the histories," powerfully convey the soldier's enduring suffering and its place in the broader narrative of history. The metaphor of "dull torment mottles like a fly’s" suggests that his pain, though significant, is a small and often overlooked blemish on the grand, polished surface of historical accounts. The "lying amber of the histories" implies that these accounts are selective and deceptive, preserving only a sanitized or glorified version of events while obscuring the true human cost and suffering endured by soldiers.

"A Lullaby" by Randall Jarrell is a haunting meditation on the dehumanizing and sacrificial aspects of a soldier's life. Through its vivid imagery and poignant reflections, the poem captures the profound disconnection, degradation, and loss experienced by those who serve in war, offering a sobering commentary on the personal toll of military conflict and the ways in which individual suffering is often subsumed by the broader narratives of history.

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