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Without Benefit of Declaration Summary
This poem is addressed to the soldier who is about to be sent to die in war. His family will get a medal in exchange for his eventual death.
Without Benefit of Declaration Analysis
The hollowness of war and the cruelty of sending a youth to die are the subjects of this poem. In removing the obfuscating ideology of war from the description of the soldier's plight, Hughes highlights the basic economic exchange that war represents for the family of the soldier: a medal for a son. By framing it as an exchange, Hughes also comments on the underlying economic motivation of governments engaging in war.
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This section contains 117 words (approx. 1 page at 400 words per page) |
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