The Death of a Soldier

“The Death of a Soldier” opens with an extended metaphor comparing the season of autumn with a soldier’s death. This metaphor conveys the senselessness and sheer quantity of lives lost during the First World War. Although not much is revealed about the speaker, Stevens was too old to be drafted at the time of the war and remained at his home during this period. The speaker does not provide violent details, indicating a separation between the speaker and the chaos of the war front; this descriptive and emotional distance may imply that the speaker was a civilian during this time, powerless and unable to help. The poem focuses instead on a sense of emptiness in the lack of recognition or ceremony for the many young men who lost their lives. The poem contemplates the futility and trauma of one of the bloodiest wars in history.

The speaker asserts that, like the leaves in autumn, when a soldier falls, “Life contracts and death is expected” (Line 1). The final line in the first stanza is end-stopped and the only line that is a complete sentence. The effect is emphatic and creates a starkness: “The soldier falls” (Line 3). The metaphor of autumn draws a specific comparison between the soldier falling and the leaves turning and falling. The speaker pictures the many soldiers in the war as victims of some inevitable natural force, crumbling and dying as if it is a mundane and commonplace occurrence.

In the second stanza, the speaker describes what happens after the soldier’s death. He claims, “He does not become a three-days parsonage” (Line 4), possibly making a reference to Benjamin Franklin’s famous idiom that “guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” Such a context implies that neither the dead soldier’s body nor his presence through memory lingers for long. Whether it is because his body is abandoned or lost on the battlefield, the soldier’s death is almost inconsequential, routine, and swiftly forgotten. His body and memory do not become an unwelcome guest, and this clever reference to a lighthearted idiom demonstrates the bitterly sardonic tone of the poem. The soldier’s death is not “imposing his separation” (Line 5), because the world and the war does not give him a second thought. The line ironically adopts the view of soldiers as disposable, highlighting the senseless violence of war. In addition, the soldier’s death has no ceremony to honor his life and death, as his death is not “Calling for pomp” (Line 6). The soldier’s death is humble, the opposite of boastful and ostentatious, and easily forgotten.

The speaker goes on to talk about death as a philosophical concept in the third stanza, describing it as, “absolute and without memorial” (Line 7). So described, death is final, like a decree of the law. The death is not memorialized; there is no monument or candle-lit gathering to preserve the soldiers life through others’ memory. The speaker compares the way the soldier’s death is not acknowledged once again to the season of autumn, this time specifying the effect of the wind stopping, “As in a season of autumn, / When the wind stops” (Lines 8-9). A windy day in autumn would blow the leaves around, pulling them off of the trees—but the speaker emphasizes the moment in which the wind ceases and the leaves flutter to the ground. However, the speaker does not finish this simile, trailing off as if in thought or swept up in emotion.

The final stanza opens with the same line, “When the wind stops” (Line 10), reemphasizing this moment of quiet, when everything settles down and comes to a rest. The line further specifies, “over the heavens” (Line 10), bringing in these vast images of the cosmos and the universe. The speaker then says, “The clouds go, nevertheless, / In their direction” (Lines 11-12). The image implies that, like a passerby observing something mundane, the clouds continue on their way, overlooking or ignoring the violence and death below. Even if the world continues to turn as if nothing has happened, the wind stops for just a moment. Although most of the world ignores or forgets about the many nameless soldiers who perish in battle, the earth holds a brief moment or vigil for them in the form of a single, quiet ceasing of the wind—and then continues on. The soldier’s death is inconsequential in the face of the universe. However, the poem acknowledges the injustice of this tragedy, suggesting that every soldier deserves a proper burial, or at the very least some kind of memorial to honor their sacrifice. The speaker is painfully aware that in times of war, soldiers become expendable means to nationalistic ends. It is one of the many tragedies of war.