How does the poet express the futility of war through his poem 'Asleep in the Valley"? What message does he want to convey?

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How does the poet express the futility of war through his poem 'Asleep in the Valley"? What message does he want to convey?

Ans:  "Asleep in the Valley" is a war poem. It deals with the futility of war.It is not pro- war but anti-war because a war only destroys beautiful things of nature .A soldier lying asleep in the valley is asleep forever. The young soldier lost his life in war. A soldier is an asset of a country.  His young flesh is pierced by two bullets. War claims him. Which nation he belongs to is not important. He has no name. He has no identity. He is a cannon-fodder. This is what exactly war does.He saves the country by sacrificing his life. As war can't give life, it is futile. It has no value. Where there is no life, there is futility only. The poem brings in all the pity of war-the futility of war. So the poet Rimbaud says that there is no glory in war. An untimely death can never be a glory. 


The poem gives us a message. We should not be engaged in warfare since it creates hollowness of lives by causing death and destruction on a gigantic scale.

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