Asleep in The Valley - Substance

Q: Write the substance of the poem ‘Asleep in The Valley’.

A:    Arthur Rimbaud, the boy poet, in his antiwar poem ‘Asleep in The Valley’ has depicted the pity of war by using the sonnet form. In a perfect lyric, the poet has set up a picture – perfect background. A slow stream flows in a small green valley leaving silvery shore on the bright grass. The sun beams from the mountain top fill the hollow place.

          A young soldier is sleeping having been open – mouthed. He has kept his hand on a fern – pillow stretching his body on bushes and plants. He is looking pale in his green sun soaked bed.
The child like innocent soldier is sleeping blissfully keeping his feet among the flowers. Nature is keeping him warm else he may catch cold.

          The humming insect will not disturb him in his eternal sleep as the soldier is actually dead, having been killed by bullet.
Thus the whole poem comes to the end with a rude shock expressing the futility of war.





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