Reservist

Themes: war, futility of war

• poet talks about futility of war and what reservists go through while training
• reservists are common people who are trained to be soldiers
• “we” - perspective of the older men who are forced to train

Structure

• free verse- no rhyme scheme- shows the unrest and aggression (agony) in the minds of the reservists
• technique of listing
• asyndeton (commas and listing)
• enjambment
• sejoura- dramatic change in tone (tone of optimism in the last stanza)
• onomatopoeia (sound words)
• anachronism- something placed out of its time (war is placed out of its time as it is not happening)
• allusion to Sisyphus
• alliteration
• anaphora (“We will…/We will” in stanza 3)

Form and structure

• free verse -no regular stanza length, organization or rhyme
• In three stanzas, there are clear sections:

1. present tense - “Time again”
2. future certainties - “We will”
3. future possibilities - “we will perhaps”

• the looseness of the verse is in contrast to the control the government exercise of the life the reservists

Voice and tone

• tone is self-mocking with hints of frustration
• optimism at end could be self-mockery - an illogical possibility to match the “fantasyland which the authorities have creates”

Language

• language relates to war and battle (report for service, charging, clarion notes, command, helmets, weapons, march)
• this language is in contrast with the realities of the soldiers - they have “grunts”, “creaking-bones” and “pot-bellies”
• references to monotony and repetition - “keep charging” the “same hills”… and they will become Sisyphus (who represents futility)
• in the second stanza the vocabulary is like that of childhood fairytales - “fantasylands”, “carousels”, “masked threats” and “monsters”
• the military exercises are downgraded through the mocking comparisons
• anaphoric repetition of “We will” conveys a sense of determination

Stanza 1
Line 1

• “joust” is (i) a sporting contest a knight is engaged in or (ii) a letter a soldier gets to join the military or continue training
• “again” -brings out the disgust of reservists and monotony of training
  (shows it is repetitive)
• “fanfare” is ceremonial music

Line 2

• “imperative” (and “annual” and “regular”) -creates an impression that the training is repetitive and cannot be escaped

Line 3

• “clarion” -war trumpets, it brings out unrest in reservists
• “king’s command” -the letter is like a threat, you will face a consequence if you don’t abide; the reservists had to go for the training
• the reservist soldiers must obey “the king’s command”
• you cannot deny, you must go for training
• the word “king” shows that there is no question of escaping the mundane and monotonous training

Line 4-5

• “to tilt/at the old windmills” -an allusion of the nothingness and monotony of war is created
  apparent meaning: they actually have to move the windmill
  actual meaning: they must perform tasks that are of no benefit to anyone
• the poet mocks the training

Line 5-11

• the poet lists the tasks the reservist soldiers, lots of commas used
• this one long sentence catalogues to poet’s unrest and aggression
• “creaking bones” -the reservist soldiers are not fit to be soldiers; they are no longer in their prime age (they are out of shape)
• “pot bellies” -reinforces that the soldiers are out of shape
• the soldiers must “creep to attention” (go and report)
• “rusty armour” and shrinking gear” -the soldiers have trained for a long time so their armour is “rusty”
• while they put on their armour, they are “shutting off half” their “world” -this emphasizes that when they go for training, they must shut out their happiness and only focus on training

Line 12-13

• their armour is old, only their weapons are new
• most of the reservists are not excited or enthusiastic, they are not in their prime stages of life anymore

Monotony

• the monotony leads to the crisis of life- battle for daily existence; the training was not easy and the poet disapproves it

Stanza 2
Line 1-6

• the plight of the soldiers is worsened as they have to perform many repetitive tasks; this is brought out through the repetition of the word “same”
• these two sentences bring out the emotion of the poet as the soldiers go thought the same monotonous tasks
• nothing new is done, they “well keep charging up the same hills” -this brings out the monotony of the task
• the poet compares the reservists to “children being placed/on carousels they cannot get off from” -this demonstrates that when the reservists finish their training, they have to do the exact same thing again

Line 7-9

• the theme of futility of war is brought out as war is described as somebody’s expensive fantasyland”
  this indicates that with war, there will be destruction, and many people will die, so war is described as “expensive”; there is also a destruction of the reservists’ time
  war is also described as a “fantasyland”, because war will never happen; this also reinforces that there is no need for reservists to train, it is “expensive” for them
• every time they train, they must listen to “tedious rituals”, they are just supposed to listen and follow orders, without making any of their own decisions

Anachronism

• error in chronology, when situation presented to audience in a way which it actually should not be
• whatever the reservists are doing is not to be done, it should have been done when they were young and in their prime stages of life; they are not in shape
• it is also a series of events set at a time they should not be; the reservists must only prepare if there is war, but they are not, hence, they are wasting their time
• this brings out the criticism towards society and authority, hence it is a social satire (poet mocks the society), there is a mockery to the training through anachronism
• furthermore, war is out of place in a modern world (war placed out of its time) so it is a futile effort taken up by the government to train the reservists
• ex: personal response- the poet talks about his disapproval of the rules and regulations laid by the country, and of the policies written by the government
• the poet feels military training is a waste of effort as the training (war) is outdated

Stanza 3
Line 1-10

• there is a ray of hope as the poet feels that the reservists will “emerge unlikely heroes” and “will have proven that Sisyphus is not a myth”
• glimpse of hope (tone of optimism)
• poet says there should be reason to undergo monotonous training
• sejoura used to show a change through similies