"No doubt they'll soon get well.

Of course they're longing to go out again."

a) Who is being referred to in these lines?

b) Who is the speaker?

i) a fellow soldier

ii) a non – combatant

War causes much suffering. Who are the victims? In what ways do they suffer?

Complete the summary of the poem:

The men who went out into the battlefield and survived the war will __________________. The shock and strain may have caused ________________. Soon, they will __________________ to go out again. These men who fought at the battlefield though old now are learning __________________ and live life once again. The trauma of the battle, their __________________ nights, memories of the friends who __________________ will soon be forgotten. Their dreams that drip with murder today will also be a part of the__________________ past. The wounds will heal and they will be __________________ of the glorious war though it __________________ pride yet, it is sad that the men who went out to battle _______________and glad, return to their motherland looking like children with eyes that __________________, broken and __________________.

"Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;

children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad."

a) What contrasting picture of soldiers is given in the last two lines?

b) Bring out the significance of the following phrases from the poem.

i) 'grim and glad'

ii) 'eyes that hate you’

Do you know that one of the symptoms of combat fatigue or 'neurasthenia' is a stammer and a failure to string sentences together coherently? The poem portrays the grim untold reality of war. Is it a truthful one? Give reasons.