So, basically I cracked on the poem at the end of term 2 before I flew all the way across Pacific Ocean to Canada. Have a quick look and enjoy.
Unseen Poetry Assignment
1(a)
In the above poem “Casualty-Mental Ward”, written by Vernon Scannell, the persona of the poem is commonly associated with people that are psychologically unsound or in harsher words, insane. From the title of the poem, we can infer that the poet intended to depict someone that was injured mentally and was rehabilitating in a ward. The persona had experienced immense torture and trauma in a war and subsequently went berserk. There was confusion in him and he apparently still could not recover from the horrific experiences that haunted him as a soldier, over and over again. In this essay, I will list down evidences in the poem that clearly suggests the persona was mentally disturbed.
In the first stanza, the poet started the poem by giving the reader a clear sign that the persona went mad. “Something has gone wrong inside my head”. This sentence was later repeated 2 to 3 times in the poem and the repetition was always found in the last sentences of the later stanzas. The effect of repetition was to enhance the certainness of the persona that he himself was a lunatic. The repetition was also implemented to show the confusion and chaos that took place in the minds of crazy people. Insane people could never sort things out right because their brains have gone haywire. The repercussions of the war haunted the persona so badly that made him could not think right. The memories of the persona in the poem were fragmented as this was a device used by the poet to make the poem seemed more alike to what a crazy man would think. “The sappers have left mines and wires behind”. This was the persona reminiscing of his former comrades of war that were fighting in the frontline. He partially remembered what happened and this stanza ended with the line “I hole long conversations with the dead”.
In stanza 2, the persona briefly described his weak mental situation as he could not remember things clearly. “I do not always know what has been said; The rhythms, not the words, stay in mind”. This shows that the persona was mentally unsound as he could not evidently remember the words people had spoken. All he knew was fragments. He could only trace back to the pace and grooving when the people spoke to him but not the content. Everything was revolving in his head but he just could not sort them out. The poet used a similar diction in this and the following stanzas. All of the last word of each line of every stanza ended with a letter “d”. His main purpose was to make the overall poem seem cohesive as most of the times he wanted to use past tense for the word of the last line. Most past tense words end with an “ed”. He wanted to make the poem sound “sad” and to tell the reader that all the scenes in the poem were recollections of the persona from the war as everything was over. There was a false calmness as the aftermath of the war was even more daunting.
The third stanza shows what the persona experienced after the war. He experienced nothing but trauma and nightmares, however the poem describes this is in a subtle way. “Not just the sky but grass and trees are red, the flares and tracers- or I’m colour-blind”. The only reason why the persona saw everything in red colour was because he had a physiological barrier in front of him that he had yet to overcome after war. In war, what do you see? Blood, nothing else but more blood. There was a red veil on his eyes that could never be torn down. His mind was flushed with those bloody images of war which made him more and more fragile. Secondly, he was mentally unsound because he could not differentiate things. The poet used contrast comparisons of colours to show how severe the persona’s condition was. The sky as we know is blue and grass and trees are obviously green. His meaning that was implied here was “Not just blue things are red, green things are also red”. This was so absurd and ridiculous that became an apt evidence to prove that the persona was mentally aroused. He asked himself whether he was colour-blind because he saw all things red, including real red things like fire sparks. He was so baffled and started doubting himself by asking himself questions on whether he was colour-blind. The poem started to get into its main point from the end of this stanza when the persona said “I hold long conversations with the dead”. This was some sort of prelude into the next stanza where the persona believed that he could communicate with dead people. The dead people were actually his fellow compatriots that fought but died in the war.
Moving on to stanza 4, “Their presence comforts and sustains like bread”. The poet used simile in this sentence. The persona thought that the spirit of his dead comrades still roamed around him but with a time period. Bread is a dairy product that has a certain expiry date. The spirits that lingers within the ward soothes the persona. And again, in the end of this stanza, the poet concluded with a repetition of “Something has gone wrong inside my head”.
In stanza 5, the persona was much mentally unsound as he continued to describe the relationship between the spirits and himself. “They know about the snipers I dread And how the world is booby-trapped and mined”. The persona was recalling the days when he and his comrades were in war. They had faced countless ambushes from the enemy, which made them suppose that the world was a dark and callous place. “Booby-trapped” means there is bait awaited to lure people and injure them. The persona believed that the world had become an evil place after experiencing the entire trauma from the war.
In the last stanza of the poem, the persona imagined that his war pals were surrounding him and whispering consolation when he was about to fall asleep. “As all eyes close, they gather round my bed And whisper consolation”. The poet used “round” instead of “around” here because he wanted to create an imagery effect of the people literally crowding the persona’s bed in a circle. This would create a stronger impact on what the poet wanted to express. When the people had formed a circle and they started whispering, the persona would feel more disturbed as the voices of the people interfere with one another when the sound travels.
In conclusion, the poet used many literary devices to exaggerate or describe the mental condition of the persona. The persona had endured too much trauma from the repercussions of the war. The persona insisted that he could converse with the people from the other world and apparently, he went berserk. The mood of the poem was subtle, with little or no violence at all; but was poignant and strong in the language used which adequately portrayed the horrors of war. The persona was never sane from the start of the poem, all he remembered were dreadful and bloody scenes from the war that were rooted in him mind for the rest of his life.
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1(b)
In Vernon Scannell’s “Casualty-Mental Ward”, Scannell conveyed a couple of messages regarding war and several themes were shown in the poem. In my essay, I will first discuss the themes on Horrors of War, Deaths and Comradeship and then talk about the message that Scannell wanted to convey.
Firstly, one of the themes evident in the poem is definitely the horrors of war. The persona of the poem is a perceived crazy man which lost his senses after fighting in war. All the horrible memories haunt him over and over again, each and every day of his life. All the bloodshed, the killings and dying of people; they were just too much to endure. The persona could not face himself to embrace what had happened and eventually became mad. Everything just continues to play non-stop inside his brain like a broken record or cassette. He could not control his mind to stop thinking of these issues but to face them. His values and perceptions of the world had been distorted after the deception and lies he had gone through. All the fragmented memories come back to haunt him day and night, whenever he gets lonely. From the first stanza’s “The sappers have left mines and wires behind” to the 5th stanza’s “And how the world is booby-trapped and mined”, there was a relation between these two lines. The poet wanted to make the world seem an ugly place by using a repetition of the word “mine”. The effect was to degrade the world into a place that only war occurs and is full of traps.
Death is also a theme in the poem. The persona mentioned numerous times in the poem that he can communicate for a long period of time with his former comrades of war. His comrades had sacrificed for the country during the war and the crazy persona believed that their spirits were still around him. The death of people was also an important theme in this poem as there had been several repetitions of lines like “I hold long conversations with the dead”. People who perished in the war also had major influences on the persona. The persona would feel very empty and clueless when he saw his comrades that had been fighting alongside with him die, one by one. He had to experience all these trauma and mental torture. Death and casualty in war often are reduced to figures or statistics, but in this poem, the humanness of the dead soldiers was brought out through the vivid descriptions of the happenings.
Thirdly, comradeship or brotherhood was also a theme found in the poem. When the persona was all lonely inside his wad in the rehabilitation centre, what he first thought of were his friends in the war. This poem actually could be a eulogy for the people who had died during the war and a remembrance from the persona. The persona believed that his former comrades were still there by his side although they no longer existed. It was the tight bond that had formed during the days of the war when they relied on one another’s moral support for survival. When his comrades died, the persona still treated that they continued to exist so that he could feel better. He did not have the courage to accept reality that so many died. It was simply adding more mental burden for himself. “And whisper consolation”, this shows that the persona imagined that his comrades gave him support. He really needed support to pull through this ordeal of mental sufferings.
The message that the poet Vernon Scannell really wanted to convey through this poem was to shed light on the truth of the war. A lot of ardent and nationalistic youths in those times were so eager to fight for their country. Most of them had been brainwashed by their country and they therefore believed that fighting for their motherland was something glorious and dying was even more heavenly. This however, in the poet’s view was not true. If you look at the poem, what do you see? Yes, nothing but suffering and agony. The persona not only had to endure physical pain, but mental torture. The poet wanted to convey that the price that people had to pay for going to war was immensely huge. War was no laughing matter. It could literally kill you. In the end, people who join war may possibly land in the situation like the persona- a crazy man who believed that dead people exists. “Something had gone wrong inside my head”, it was evident what had gone wrong. And he was going to spend the rest of his life in a cold mental asylum.
The poet is hence, also disapproving war as he believed that war would bring nothing but sufferings. His intention of writing the poem was to pinpoint blame not just on the pro-war people, but more on the people who did not stop the war and caused so many tragedies that could be prevented.
The poem had three different themes, namely: Horrors of war, Death and Comradeship and Scannell wanted to express his thoughts by shedding light on the actual truth of war.
