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| as you can see, it is a tight fit |
Although it is only 5 lines long, it is intricate enough that it leads to many different theories and examinations. Two critiques that I have come across by two different authors each have their own analysis about this poem which I found interesting.
Patrick F. Bassett, a critic from the literary journal Explicator, feels the poem connects the imagery of sleep, animalism and human birth. Bassett feels that the line, “…only a sleepy, fatigue-wearied turret gunner could battle enemy fighter planes and yet not awaken until hearing the ack ack sound of the anti-aircraft gun’s [black flack]” (Bassett 20) is used by Jarrell to convey sleep as a way to cope with war. Since the gunner is not fully conscious, but is in a hazy reality, it is easier to contend with the oncoming fire from the fighter planes. Bassett also goes onto claim Jarrell equates animals and men with the line “…wet fur froze.” (Bassett 20) He theorizes that Jarrell wanted to inform his audience that since man does not have fur to keep him warm and only animals would ever suffer from cold temperatures to the point of freezing, that war makes animals out of men. (Bassett 20) Bassett finally connects birth with this poem by pointing out that the soldier, having to fit in a ball turret, would almost have to contort into the fetal position. He gives part of the line “And I hunched in its belly…” and reminds the reader that the soldier is “wet”. (Bassett 21) So with the imagery created, you could say that Jarrell is stating the soldier is birthed or miscarried out of the womb.
Patrick J. Horner’s, another critic from Explicator has a critique with some similarities to Bassett’s in that he feels connections to birth (with the womb and idea of man as fetus are apparent in the poem) but he also feels that the State cared little for the narrator’s personal life and needed only a soldier to fight. Horner states that during the time of birth to his death “the gunner exists simply as a part of the State’s [dream life]” (Horner 10) and that the little focus on the rest of his life makes his death “one more stage in the cycle of filling, emptying and refilling the turret.” He also goes onto extract from Jarrell’s poem that the State simply used the gunner and then washed out his bloody corpse equating it to the abortion of an unwanted child. “…the washing out of his remains by introducing a fluid under pressure clearly suggests one of the common procedures for ejecting a fetus after abortion” (Horner 10). He also goes onto claim that the gunner “like an aborted fetus, was never allowed to achieve independent human life” since he is part of the State. He is simply born, made into a soldier, put to fight and then died, to be replaced by another in a long, perpetual cycle.
Both Bassett and Horner give interesting analyses about this poem. Both claim the poem states war is horrendous, and call to attention the imagery of birth. However, Bassett lays more of the blame for lack on compassion at the end of the poem on man’s animalistic nature coming out during war, where Horner puts the blame on the State for its hypnotic effect it has on its soldiers. These two complex analyses are two of many that have studied this poem and it is stunning that so much has been written about this poem in spite of it being only 5 lines long. I think this is a testament to the talent of Randall Jarrell in that he can write a deep poem but not have it too lengthy or cryptic.
Works Cited
Bassett, Patrick F. "Jarrell's THE DEATH OF THE BALL TURRET GUNNER." Explicator 36.3 (1978): 20-21. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.
Horner, Patrick J. "Jarrell's THE DEATH OF THE BALL TURRET GUNNER." Explicator 36.4 (1978): 9-10. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.
Image Source
"Lower Ball Turret." One Story Of Many. Web. 15 April 2011. .
