Robert Shultz's poem entitled "Vietnam War Memorial, Night"

In Robert Shultz?s rime entitle ?Vietnam War Memorial, Night,? we beat to natter the memorial in two different contexts. On the surface, we stun visual descriptions and details of the memorial physically that allow us to word picture clearly what it must be desire to really be there. However, a closer read into the poem reveals a different military position. Hidden under(a) the surface, the author takes us patronize to the contend itself. We ar left wondering throughout the poem what the author?s true feelings are. He seems to view the commemoration in a negative light. He describes the monument as ?jabbing the air,? which can be assumed to be a negative connotation. At the end of the poem, we are relieved to hold that the author is able to distribute the monument cleansed. This is significant because it is something he would not ingest been able to had he not visited the monument.

severally(prenominal) stanza in the poem describes the monument itself but under the surface, we get the feeling of being back in the war. There are m whatever references to war-like things and scenarios. There are many words utilise to describe the memorial that clearly paint a picture of war-like scenes. In the second stanza we get the feeling that we?re pussyfoot through a swamp. The author says, ??I step send care intacty somewhere near the open chuck.? The author?s choice of words is clearly deliberate. He uses the word ?trench? which is a word often associated with the Vietnam War, or any war.

As we continue reading, tension seems to build. There seems to be an ever maturement danger. In the third stanza the author says, ?Choppers shuttle across the slope with jets for National crying down.? We can picture the author, or any solider working through swampy trenches with choppers flying overhead. We can judge the element of fear the soldiers and the author must have felt. He continues in the fourth stanza saying, ?There are separates here: exsanguine T-shirts drift in heavy air.? He doesn?t travel alone, but we have to wonder if the other ?soldiers? are wild or alive. The heavy air would suggest the soldiers are pulseless and the word drift suggests they are floating in the swamp. This continues to wreak to the tension that has been building up.

More evidence points to death. He says, ?At first we are only ankle deep in the names of the dead(a), but the path slopes down. Quietly, we wade in.? The author is literally describing what it?s like to walk along the monument look at the names of the dead. However, this has a deeper meaning for him. He recalls what it was like to be in the war wading through swamps with the bodies of dead soldiers all around. It is obvious that visiting the monument is a very(prenominal) difficult thing for the author to do. He is confronted once again with the horrors of the Vietnam War that perhaps he had suppressed previously.

The tension at last boils over starting with the second to last stanza. The author is actually touching the names of the dead on the monument and becomes in all overwhelmed. He says, ?To touch an absence carved off? peculiar(a) deaths rush out at them. The minds of veterans gape like tunnels.? It?s as if the author feels some resentment that he survived and these soldiers did not. He goes on saying, ?We are over our heads.



We cling to each other like all the rest?? Many soldiers felt that the united States was ?over its head? during the war but he refers to the commradery the soldiers had for each other. For me, this is the most important line in the poem. The author former to visiting the monument, felt resentment that he had survived the war and that his familiar soldiers did not. However, the Vietnam War was very much opposed by the American people. Soldiers were not welcomed when they returned, if they returned at all. There was also a drafting in place meaning there were many under trained men fighting in the war. This must have brought them closer together. The soldiers were a group not respected by their American people. I think the author remembers the relationship he shared with the soldiers which helps him heal.

The very last sentence relieves the tension the make up throughout the poem. The author is able to walk away with a feeling of being ?cleansed.? He is able to leave the monument and the war behind. He says, ??And climb away with neutered steps.? He uses the word ?altered? in a electropositive sense. In the beginning of the poem he describes the war and the monument in a negative light. He depicts the negative aspects of the war in comparison with the monument. However, by the end of the poem his perspective has changed. He has an ?altered? piece of mind.

BibliographyRobert Shultz?s poem entitled ?Vietnam War Memorial, Night

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