The poem, “War is Kind” (1899), by Stephen Crane, mocks anyone who thinks that war can produce peace. Crane pushes this mocking tone to put forth an opinion to enlighten his readers that no matter the awards and glory a person may receive for losing someone to war, war will only leave people heartbroken and lonely, hence the idea that war will never be kind. Crane develops his poem by taunting the readers through the use of literary devices such as irony, personification and similes.
In stanza two Crane utilizes the literary term, personification to exaggerate feelings. Crane talks for a while about men wanting to kill and then states, “glory flies above them”(9). Glory cannot fly but Crane allows it to by using personification to amplify …show more content…
Crane talks at first about trained soldiers and then says, “...virtue of slaughter/...excellence of killing” (20/21). Previously in this poem Crane has already worked up feelings of gloom, grief and aggravation, but here by using these oxymorons Crane creates an emotion of disgust. Crane made slaughtering virtuous and killing excellent and then repeats at the end of the stanza a thousand corpses lie, not one or two but a thousand people are dead and Crane discusses how great murder is which makes the reader very disgusted. Along with the oxymorons Crane says, point for them, referring to the dead and those who killed; he tries to make it sound as though war is not all that bad because you gain points for the dead but by mentioning the thousand corpses he shows how horrible war …show more content…
“Mother whose heart hung humble as a button,” (23) when a mother whose sons died in war they receive a button that gives recognition to the mother for their sons service. When a button is fastened to a shirt it can tend to droop, Crane compares this to the dead soldier’s mother’s heart which is now hurting because her son is long gone and will tend to ‘sag’ like the button placed on her shirt. No matter what job a mother may have nothing can replace the job as the mother has to love her son. In the end nothing, not even a button could replace this mother’s sorrow for her son.
This poem is depressing but Crane titles it, “War is Kind,” and repeats it multiple times throughout the poem. He does this to make fun of anyone who may think war can bring peace because war will always leave someone to mourn the ones they lost due to war and nothing will ever make up for the people who died. This poem takes literary devices and places them throughout this poem to remind people that war will never be kind and no one can ever allow themselves to think that war is
In stanza two Crane utilizes the literary term, personification to exaggerate feelings. Crane talks for a while about men wanting to kill and then states, “glory flies above them”(9). Glory cannot fly but Crane allows it to by using personification to amplify …show more content…
Crane talks at first about trained soldiers and then says, “...virtue of slaughter/...excellence of killing” (20/21). Previously in this poem Crane has already worked up feelings of gloom, grief and aggravation, but here by using these oxymorons Crane creates an emotion of disgust. Crane made slaughtering virtuous and killing excellent and then repeats at the end of the stanza a thousand corpses lie, not one or two but a thousand people are dead and Crane discusses how great murder is which makes the reader very disgusted. Along with the oxymorons Crane says, point for them, referring to the dead and those who killed; he tries to make it sound as though war is not all that bad because you gain points for the dead but by mentioning the thousand corpses he shows how horrible war …show more content…
“Mother whose heart hung humble as a button,” (23) when a mother whose sons died in war they receive a button that gives recognition to the mother for their sons service. When a button is fastened to a shirt it can tend to droop, Crane compares this to the dead soldier’s mother’s heart which is now hurting because her son is long gone and will tend to ‘sag’ like the button placed on her shirt. No matter what job a mother may have nothing can replace the job as the mother has to love her son. In the end nothing, not even a button could replace this mother’s sorrow for her son.
This poem is depressing but Crane titles it, “War is Kind,” and repeats it multiple times throughout the poem. He does this to make fun of anyone who may think war can bring peace because war will always leave someone to mourn the ones they lost due to war and nothing will ever make up for the people who died. This poem takes literary devices and places them throughout this poem to remind people that war will never be kind and no one can ever allow themselves to think that war is