We Slept With Our Boots On

Dear all, today I will be sharing with you an analysis on the poem "We Slept with our boots on".
             Although there is not much information provided about the speaker, it is very clear that he is a soldier and he is fighting like all other men, not one of those behind lines simply giving orders. He does not know where he is fighting or who he is fighting but fights solely for his survival. I feel that the poet's description of the speaker is one that is unprejudiced. He does not make the speaker seem like a patriotic character, and neither does he make the speaker seem like one who is uninvolved in the action. The speaker is made to fight aimlessly, and he is so numbed to war that there is no longer any emotional response to the killing.
                There is a slight change in tone when the speaker describes the mountains in the area, making it seem a little calmer; however it only makes the fighting worse, as it now takes place in even the calmest of areas.
There is some religion involved in this poem, and the speaker makes references to heaven and God. The area he was fighting in was compared to God, where the fighting was compared to hell.
              He knows he will die sooner or later and has prepared what he wants to say when he reaches heaven. He remembers all his friends lost and killed in the action.
The form of this poem is that the first line the poet writes always rhymes with the second line. This gives the poem a very monotonous feel, like a chant, and this is in line with the nature of the poem, where the speaker is almost like a zombie.
              This poem is very vivid in terms of sound. There is the sound of constant artillery, weaponry, the sounds of metal hitting the ground and the splattering of mud. All these add to the realism of the poem and how it absorbs the reader as though the reader is in the battle itself.
            The tone in this poem is very straightforward. The speaker delivers the poem in the same way as his attitude is to the fighting, unfeeling and indifferent.