Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
“I’m grateful, Sir”, he whispered, as I handed my canteen
And smiled a smile that was, I think, the brightest that I’ve seen.
“Seems silly a man my size so full of vim and zest
Could find himself defeated by a small pain in his chest.”
(Small Pain in My Chest – Michael Mack)
(i) Where is ‘he’ when the narrator encounters him? Describe the scene around him.
(ii) What does ‘he’ ask the narrator for? What reasons does he give for his request?
(iii) What does the narrator see when he looks at him? How do we know that ‘he’ is very
young and completely unaware of the seriousness of his injury?
(iv) How does ‘he’ describe the battle that had been fought the night before and his role in
it?
(v) What feelings do you think the narrator must have experienced when he ‘put his arms
around him’?
What is the central theme of this poem?
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(i)
- underneath the tree / on the battlefield.
- Scores of dead bodies [dead figures, soldiers] lay all over the battle field/ Big deep craters on the earth
(ii)
- A sip of water
- he had fought all day and all night without rest/ it will surely do him good/ will ease the pain/ it will quench his thirst
he was wounded (had a small pain in his chest)/ and weary.
(iii)
- A large reddish-brown patch on his shirt / stain of the warm blood mixed with the dust of Asia.
- The poet calls him ‘soldier boy’/ he is full of vim and zest
- The soldier refers to his fatal wound repeatedly as ‘a small pain in my chest/ he smiled/ jokes: it must be fatigue; he’s getting old/says, ‘I count myself lucky’. / Says ‘..before I travel on’
(iv)
- Two hundred soldiers climbed the hill.
- There was an explosion [ the night exploded]/ as they cleared the crest and he was wounded.
- he looked around for aid / but only saw big craters / and dead bodies on the ground/ He
- kept on firing at them/ he tried to do his best.
(v) Personal response: example – guilt, shame, sorrow, anger, tenderness, regret, empathy,
remorse; compassion; disappointment; misery; he feels their wounds pressed the large one in
his heart and the small one of the soldier, etc.
Theme: Devastation caused by war and the senseless loss of young lives/ agony of brave soldiers/ horrors of war/ sense of duty/ highlights the sacrifice made by soldiers/ soldiers have to suffer in a war they did not cause/ / The narrator represents the collective guilt of mankind/ the theme of the poem is courage and bravery/never give up.