The Gift in War Time (Poem) Grade 11 Exercises

Understanding the text

Answer the following questions.

a. Who is the speaker addressing and why can that person not hear or understand what she is saying?

Ans:  The speaker is addressing her dead husband who is killed in a war. That person can not hear or understand what she is saying because he is already dead. 

b. What can you infer about the speaker’s feelings for the person addressed as “you”?

Ans: The speaker expresses her feelings of love, loss and sadness after the death of the person she calls ‘you’. He was her happiness and life. Now she has lost him, she cannot get his smiles and hugs. She hopes to meet him after this life.

c. What is the speaker’s attitude toward war?

Ans: The speaker complains against war. Her feelings show the tragedy caused by war. It killed her dear husband and spoiled her life. Her happiness and youth ended with his death. Now there is only sadness. There is no compensation for her loss.

d. In what ways do you think this person’s fate has affected the speaker?

Ans: This person’s fate was to die in war because he was a soldier. The speaker feels her happiness and youth ended with his death. Her life is changed from spring to winter. There are no smiles and hugs from him. There is only sadness for her.

e. What does the speaker promise at the end of the poem? Why do you think the speaker does this?

Ans: The speaker promises to meet him in their next life, she will hold the shrapnel as a token by which they will recognize each other. 

Reference to the context

a. What is the theme of the poem?

Answer: The poem has the themes of lamentation for the loss and meaninglessness of lives lost in war. The speaker has lost her husband in war. In return, she gets medals, silver stars and a badge, and they are of no use as he is not alive. She has been widowed and all alone now.

b. What imagery from the poem made the greatest impression on you? Why?

Answer: The image of the motionless body made the greatest impression on me. The body has lips with no smile, arms without tenderness and eyes with no sight. The dead body represents the loss caused by the war. The speaker lost her husband. Though he is given honor after his death, it is of no use.

c. Which figurative language is used in the poem? Explain with examples.

Answer: In the poem, irony, imagery, anaphora and apostrophe are used as figurative language.

Irony takes place when the poet talks about the gift which is not a real gift but of grief and loss. A grave and shrapnel as tokens of remembrance are not the types of gifts people truly want. In reality, the speaker says, her beloved's "gift" of death has robbed her of her youth.

The poet uses imagery when roses are offered in her beloved's grave, and her husband is described as as a corpse with lips with no smile and eyes with no sight. The red roses traditionally symbolize love.

The next figure of speech includes anaphora, which is the repetition of the same words at the beginning of a line. In the first, third and fifth stanzas, the poet repeats "I offer you". The anaphora comes in the sixth stanza when the speaker repeats "you give me" three times in a row.

The poem also uses the method of apostrophe, which is a direct address to a person who is not present or to an inanimate object. In this poem, the speaker addresses her husband’s dead body. The poet makes use of metaphor as she compares her sadness to the clouds in her eyes on a summer day.

d. What does the speaker “offer” in this poem? What does the person address as “you” give in return?

Answer: The speaker offers roses, her wedding gown, her youth, clouds, cold winters and springtime to her beloved. In return, he gives her his medals, stars, badges, his blood-stained dress, his motionless body with lips without no smile, arms without tenderness and eyes without sight, and shrapnel.

e. An apostrophe is a literary device in which a writer or speaker addresses an absent person or an abstract idea in such a way as if it were present and can understand. Discuss the poem in relation to apostrophes.

Answer: The speaker’s husband has been killed in the war. She addresses the dead body as if he can understand her. She offers several things to him but he gives her the things which are of no importance. She promises him to meet him in their next life as she loves him very sincerely.