Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"I'm Dreaming the My Lai Soldier..." by Anne Sexton is a haunting meditation on the moral and psychological aftermath of the My Lai Massacre, a tragic event during the Vietnam War where U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed civilians, including women and children. Through dream imagery and a chilling narrative voice, Sexton explores the pervasive guilt, dehumanization, and horror associated with this act of violence. The poem captures the surreal and nightmarish qualities of war trauma, where the boundaries between reality and dream, victim and perpetrator, become increasingly blurred.

The poem begins with the speaker repeatedly dreaming of the My Lai soldier, an ominous figure who intrudes upon her consciousness with the persistence of a door-to-door salesman. The comparison of the soldier to a "Fuller Brush Man" adds a layer of banality to the horror, suggesting that the atrocities of war have become as routine as the everyday act of selling goods. This casual intrusion is unsettling, as the speaker feels compelled to engage with the soldier, even though his presence is marked by the grotesque—a handshake that leaves her hand stained with green intestines.

The green intestines symbolize the visceral reality of death and destruction that the soldier has been a part of, and despite his apologies, the stain is indelible, refusing to come off. This image serves as a powerful metaphor for the inescapable guilt and moral contamination that war imparts on those who participate in it. The soldier’s apologies are hollow, indicating a disconnect between his actions and his understanding of their impact.

As the poem progresses, the soldier repeatedly lifts and lowers the speaker among the dead women and babies, emphasizing the mechanical and dehumanizing nature of his role in the massacre. His insistence that "It's my job" highlights the chilling normalization of violence in the context of war, where moral atrocities are reduced to mere duties. This detachment is further emphasized when the soldier hands the speaker a bullet "like a sleeping tablet," blurring the line between death and sleep, reality and nightmare.

The speaker's experience of lying in "this belly of dead babies," surrounded by the corpses of mothers and children, evokes a sense of suffocating horror. The image of the dead "belching up the yellow gasses of death" adds a grotesque sensory detail that heightens the reader's sense of revulsion and despair. The repetition of "each for the last time, each authentically dead" reinforces the finality and irreversibility of the violence that has taken place.

The climax of the poem occurs when the soldier, standing on a stepladder, points his "red penis" at the speaker, a grotesque and phallic symbol of power, aggression, and violation. His command, "Don't take this personally," is both absurd and cruel, as it dismisses the profound personal impact of the violence he has inflicted. This statement underscores the dehumanization inherent in war, where the suffering of others is rendered meaningless or trivial in the face of military duty.

Sexton's poem is a visceral exploration of the psychological scars left by war, both on the individuals who commit acts of violence and on those who bear witness to them. The repeated intrusion of the My Lai soldier into the speaker's dreams suggests that the trauma of such events cannot be easily contained or forgotten. The poem challenges the reader to confront the disturbing realities of war, where the lines between victim and perpetrator, sanity and madness, become increasingly blurred. Through its stark imagery and unflinching narrative, "I'm Dreaming the My Lai Soldier..." captures the deep moral anguish and unresolved guilt that continue to haunt those touched by war's horrors.

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