Richard Zito
Finley/English 354/Fall Term 1997
Haverford College
What is perhaps most striking about Blunden's poem -- apart from its obvious and understandably justified pessimism -- is the dialogue between a ravaged soul and an overwhelming drive to cope, as mediated by the poem itself. This impulse to "flinch not" is clearly a directive to ignore one's own physical senses, to become less human, and to robotically execute "...what you must do...well"; The sharply ironic notion that this dehumanization and desensitization is the way one prepares for "victory" serves to call into question the very essence of what winning is.
The very fact that there is a "conversation" between elements of self indicates that these elements are inherently divorced, leading us to an unmistakably modern reading of the poem. The once organic unit of self is completely obliterated and in its place, a world wherein one must prescribe a course of action that is entirely contradictory to what is natural -- to "[m]anly move among these ruins" instead of simply "dread[ing}the pestilence" of the Great War's waste land.
Most poignant, though, is Blunden's third stanza. The sensible soul, in the face of tragic destruction and senseless killing, valiantly attempts to "...do [its] best...", to turn a blind eye to the inhumanity of the world around him. Indeed, the language the soul replies with is quite telling -- it acquiesces and endeavors to create a psychological terrain that is far more conducive to survival by noticing the house "...as yet unshattered" and the tree "...yet unmurdered...", a rather morbid twist of the familiar dilemma of whether or not a glass is half-empty or half-full. It is a world devoid of hope wherein a tree or house is recognizable merely because it is not yet destroyed. Even the word "yet" subtly and cynically suggests that the next day's round of artillery and ensuing destruction is nothing if not inevitable. The "sky is gone", the natural world, once a seemingly eternal ally, is reduced to "foe", no more than a painful reminder that this soul inhabits the living dead, those who "drudge in [the] dark maze".