The Effects of War on Men and Women
Henry Reed's "Naming of Parts" will allow the students to examine a poem about anticipating war. The use of several voices and the concreteness of the poem will engage JROTC students and allow them to be the experts. Reading the poem with a tone of military command and discussing the parts of the gun will bring this poem alive.
Henry Reed served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and Foreign Office during World War II. His poem "Naming of Parts" came from his joking around and imitating his superiors during his experience in basic training. He noticed the rhythmic pattern that their commands took on (Anon.Reed). The poem has two distinct voices, the instructor's and a recruit's. The recruit's mind wanders off during the drill. The break is very distinct (Perrine & Arp Man. 94). Notice, in the first stanza, the break in line four.
Naming of Parts
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.1
Reed's five stanza poem's meaning stems from its use of contrast. The punctuation contributes to the emphasis on "to-day" and "yesterday." The recruits will continue cleaning and drilling and waiting for war. War will come and the contrast between the waiting and what one daydreams about illustrates the contrast between the beauties of nature and the dull lives of the soldiers. The poem continues with this symbolic contrast. The gardens appear natural, free, graceful; and the "early bees are assaulting and fumbling with flowers." In contrast, the recruits are living lives of tedious repetition, unnatural and incomplete, just like their guns. The trainees and the gardens continue to represent symbolic opposites, "death versus life, incompleteness versus completeness, the mechanical versus the natural, regimentation versus freedom, awkwardness versus grace, drabness versus beauty" (Perrine & Arp Man. 94). The mechanical routine contrasting with the beauty of nature shows that although both nature and man are outdoors there is no connection. Man will die in war, an unnatural state, while the "Japonica Glistens" and the "bees go[ing] backwards and forwards".
If you have a JROTC program, ask the instructor to have his class act out the poem in a reading and have your film/media class film the performance for your students. This is my goal. I will either have a live performance or a taped one or maybe both. Chances are I will be able to use students from my classes. The parts of a rifle and the steps to breaking one down make the poem very "demonstration" ñlike, yet the juxtaposition of thoughts presents an opportunity to say, "Hey, what is the poem really about? How does the tone shift help the reader?"
Often there are teachers on campus who have spent time in the military and are willing to be guest speakers. I hope to have such a person come and talk about the Vietnam War before I have my students work on the last three poems in the unit.
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