spring offensive

Few words

1. Stark = Bare or blunt:
2. ridge = A long, narrow chain of hills or mountains. Also called ridgeline.
3. midge = any fragile mosquito-like dipterous insect of the family Chironomidae, occurring in dancing swarms, esp near water.
4. oozed = To flow or leak out slowly, as through small openings.
5. imminent = likely to occur at any moment; impending.


6. ponder = to consider something deeply and thoroughly; meditate.
7. buttercups = any of numerous plants of the genus Ranunculus, having glossy yellow flowers and deeply cut leaves.
8. brambles = a prickly shrub or bush.
9. gust = a strong, abrupt rush of wind.;A sudden burst, as of rain or smoke.
10. thrilled = excited greatly.


11. begird = encircle with or as if with a band.
12. bugle = a brass instrument without valves; used for military calls and fanfares.
13. clamorous = conspicuously and offensively loud.
14. haste = rapidity of action or motion.
15. flares = flames up with a bright, wavering light.


16. spurned = rejected disdainfully or contemptuously;
17. bounty = Something that is given liberally.
18. chasm = having gaps or a chasm.
19. steepened = made or become steep or steeper.
20. upsurge = a rapid rise or swell.


21. verge = the extreme edge or margin.
22. brink = the point at which something is likely to begin; the verge.
23. ventured = took a risk; dare.
24. drave = a haul or shoal of fish.
25. fiend = an evil spirit; a demon ;The Devil; Satan


The Title -Even Nature Offended by War


Owen expresses contempt towards war as states in this poem.Owen thinks war is a slaughter house where young soldiers are massacred mercilessly.This colossal waste of youths makes the poet write poetry.In this poem the poet draws the conflict between the Nature and the War.Here the soothing beauty is being raped by the inhumane War fare. Brutal War offends the beautiful Nature of the Spring who has embalmed the hurt soldiers.Thus the immense hatred against War is reflected here by the apt contrast between innumerable murdering of immature youths in war and the embalming beauty of the vernal Nature.



Stanza-wise Event told in Spring Offensive


'Halted against the shade of a last hill,
They fed, and, lying easy, were at ease
And, finding comfortable chests and knees
Carelessly slept. But many there stood still
To face the stark, blank sky beyond the ridge,
Knowing their feet had come to the end of the world.'

The soldiers halted against the shade of a hill.They ate their meals,took rest and felt at ease and found comforts on the knees and chests mutually of the soldiers and carelessly slept. But many could not sleep as they were guarding standing and watching there , the vacuum universe beyond the ridge.They were doing such behavior as they knew ,they had come to the edge of this World,to the final destination of their lives -death,eternal sleep.


'Marvelling they stood, and watched the long grass swirled
By the May breeze, murmurous with wasp and midge,
For though the summer oozed into their veins
Like the injected drug for their bones' pains,
Sharp on their souls hung the imminent line of grass,
Fearfully flashed the sky's mysterious glass.'


They stood marveling at the beauty of long grass swirled by the May breeze and filled in with the murmuring sound of wasp and midge.The extracted beauty of the Summer benumbed their bodies' pain as an injected drug.But they were frightened with the fear to be uprooted at any moment alike the grass swirled to and fro again and again.


'Hour after hour they ponder the warm field --
And the far valley behind, where the buttercups
Had blessed with gold their slow boots coming up,
Where even the little brambles would not yield,
But clutched and clung to them like sorrowing hands;
They breathe like trees unstirred.'


The soldiers were thinking of the beauty of the warm field and remembered the valley behind where the buttercups shed their golden pollens on their boots and the little brambles(prickly shrubs) clutched and clung to their feet like sorrowful mates(as if to prevent them from marching to the jaws of death). The soldiers stood like trees,while none is there to stir their leaves.


'Till like a cold gust thrilled the little word
At which each body and its soul begird
And tighten them for battle. No alarms
Of bugles, no high flags, no clamorous haste --
Only a lift and flare of eyes that faced
The sun, like a friend with whom their love is done.
O larger shone that smile against the sun, --
Mightier than his whose bounty these have spurned'


Like a cold gust at the word of order,they tightened their belts. There was no bugle sounded,no flag hoisted,no clamorous hasty done .They only flared eyes to face the sun,their old and faithful friend.They smiled at it which had given them life and light. They rejected with disdain or contempt of their lives.


'So, soon they topped the hill, and raced together
Over an open stretch of herb and heather
Exposed. And instantly the whole sky burned
With fury against them; and soft sudden cups
Opened in thousands for their blood; and the green slopes
Chasmed and steepened sheer to infinite space.'


They reached to the top of the hill and raced together over an open stretch of herb and heather,exposed to the enemies who instantly fired and made the place a slaughter house.Blood overflowed the cite.Through the chasms caused by the heavy shells the soldiers dipped into the edgeless hole.


'Of them who running on that last high place
Leapt to swift unseen bullets, or went up
On the hot blast and fury of hell's upsurge,
Or plunged and fell away past this world's verge,
Some say God caught them even before they fell.'


The soldiers who went to the top of the hill to face the enemy were shot or exploded and fallen down dead.They were not seen.It is said that they had been caught in the hand of God before their falling into the world.


'But what say such as from existence' brink
Ventured but drave too swift to sink.
The few who rushed in the body to enter hell,
And there out-fiending all its fiends and flames
With superhuman inhumanities,
Long-famous glories, immemorial shames --
And crawling slowly back, have by degrees
Regained cool peaceful air in wonder --
Why speak they not of comrades that went under?'


The battlefield was filled with fire and smoke making it into a hell by the bomb blasts by the enemies.The soldiers who survived suffered pain of deathless death .These soldiers murdered the enemy soldiers,urged them to pass through the passage and retreated to a cold place far reaching the enemy soldiers.Their mortal struggle for existence over the enemies by killing the enemy soldiers made them think over their inhumane brutality,fierceness.They were haunted and could not remember how they survived.It was a nightmare.They did not speak to if their comrades had been caught before falling into the earth on God's hands.They became speechless.
3rd
Theme



Soldiers reached to the last corner of their battle.They took meals and rest .Some soldiers slept comfortably though they had no pillow.They put their heads on knees and chest of their comrades.They slept comfortably as they were tired of fighting.Some of their friends stood and wandered around.They seemed to guard the place.They looked at the beauty of the Nature .The tall grass swept by wind reminded them of their inevitable doomed future.

Brambles clung to the feet of the buttercups which gave golden pollens to remain there.There is none to stop their upward journey to hell. like this bramble to face the sure immature death.The beauty portrayed by Owen seemed to benumb their pains.

Finally after the rest in Ithaca like cite they were bugled and compelled to take action.They marched to the high spot where within a second they disappeared.They fell to ground after being shot with violent ,terrific fire.It was told foolishly that they were caught by God before their fall.This proverb was being invented to hush up the inhumane subject of mass killing from the eyes of the public by the war mongers.

But the soldiers who succeeded to escape from the battlefield by killing brutally their human foe soldiers became seriously weak to pronounce the lie that their fellow soldiers had been caught in the hands of God before they fell ,after they observed the atrocities of war directly.


Form



This poem contains seven stanzas interwoven consisting of forty six lines with rhyming and unremitting couplets or triplets in Iambic Pentameter with certain variations..The poem is rich with rhetorical figure like pathetic fallacy as found in the third stanza where buttercups and brambles are found to bless and prevent the inevitable doomed soldiers respectively .The expressions like superhuman inhumanities ,immemorial shames are examples of sharp oxymoron.Personifications and Ironies ,similes prevails the poem.The title is itself an instance of oxymoron.