To paint a morbid picture of the war, Jarrell structures the poems’ three sentences to symbolize the three stages of life - birth, life, and death to the soldiers experiences. In the first sentence, phrases like “my mother's belly” and “hunched in its belly” are utilized as a symbol of new life. This birth represents his induction as he “fell into the [state’s]” control. As a soldier, his life is described as a “nightmare” that is “ loosed from the dream of life”. He is only woken from this nightmare by being killed by the “nightmare fighters”. The soldiers death is described as unmourned as he was briskly “washed out” of the turret “with a hose” from which he fought and lived. This callous death illustrates the disposability of the soldiers
