“A Gunner’s Day” by Anonymous shows the theme of war through the tone the author establishes about it. Tone is a feeling or attitude expressed by the words of an author, and a theme is the main idea or underlying meaning of the work expressed by those words.
In this poem, the author shows us the daily job of a gunner in war. The poem’s structure is a chronological list of the daily duties assigned...
“A Gunner’s Day” by Anonymous shows the theme of war through the tone the author establishes about it. Tone is a feeling or attitude expressed by the words of an author, and a theme is the main idea or underlying meaning of the work expressed by those words.
In this poem, the author shows us the daily job of a gunner in war. The poem’s structure is a chronological list of the daily duties assigned to a gunner. It is monotonous and repetitive. Although it involves danger and the prospect of dying, the gunner carries out his daily duties as if it is a job in a factory. He wakes up at the same time each day, has the same thing for breakfast, and at the end of the day, has the same monotonous briefings. He goes to sleep at the same time each night to only go through the identical duties the next day. Although in the midst of battle it is exciting and the gunner is busy and in danger, it is just another flight, just another firefight. The tone the author is conveying is of the boredom associated with carrying out orders and doing the same thing day after day.
This tone leads us to the themes and how that boredom and repetition, in addition to the chaotic fighting, shows the hardships of war. The gunner is exhausted and wishes he could just stay in bed. He is not only physically exhausted but also mentally spent. Bullets have come within inches of his head, and he has seen friends go down in fiery crashes. The repetition of the line, “A gunner’s day is never done” in the first and last line of the poem, shows the strain and obstacles soldiers face in battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment