The chosen Poem. The War in the Air

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College
October 19, 2012
Part One: Introduction Check List
The chosen Poem
The War in the Air [Page 1071]
By Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)
For a saving grace, we did not see our dead,
Who rarely bothered coming home to die
But simply stayed away out there
In the clean war, the war in the air.
Seldom have the ghosts come back bearing their tales
Of hitting the earth, the incompressible sea,
But stayed up there in the relative wind,
Shades fading in the mind,
Who had no graves but only epitaphs
Where never so many spoke for never so few:
Per ardua, said the partisans of Mars,
Per aspera, to the stars.
That was the good war, the war we won
As if there was no death, for goodness's sake.
With the help of the losers we left out there
In the air, in the empty air.
1.0 Line by Line Interpretation
The War in the Air [Page 1071]
For a saving grace, we didn't see our dead,-(We are grateful we were spared the pain of seeing our dead comrades)
Who rarely bothered coming home to die- (Soldiers did no survive after war to come and die at home as an aftermath of the war)
But simply stayed away out there- (They died in the war and their bodies were no where to be recovered)
In the clean war, the war in the air. (For soldiers who fought in the air, their bodies were lost in the vastness of the universe)
Seldom have the ghosts come back bearing their tales (Even the spirits of the soldiers who died in the air did not attest to their death)
Of hitting the earth, the incompressible sea-(of the horrors associated with hitting the sea from above)
But stayed up there in the relative wind, (The spirits were left to hang in the oblivion)
Shades fading in the mind-(The dead soldiers remained as pigments of imaginations to those who survived the war)
Who had no graves but only epitaphs (Only symbols marked their death, for there were no bodies to be buried)
Where never so many spoke for never so few (There were no people to speak on the behalf of the dead soldiers, for only few survived)
Per ardua, said the partisans of Mars (Through difficulties to the mars)
Per aspera, to the stars. (Through difficulties to the stars)
That was the good war, the war we won (the remaining soldiers were acclaimed to win the war)
As if there was no death, for goodness's sake. (Whilst they celebrate the victory, some of the soldiers lost their lives)
With the help of the losers we left out there (The soldiers who did not make it, lost the battle and they were left in vacuum)
In the air, in the empty air. (hanging in unknown place, in the air)
2.0 Poem Paraphrase
We went out to fight
But not all of us made it back home
Some of our soldiers died in the battlefield
And because of that they did not come back home to nurse the
Wounds inflicted by war atrocities
Those who died in the air
They became a forgotten lot
...