2022/2023 Northern Western Practice Past Paper – War is

Kind – Grade 11

“Only utter destruction and wide-scale suffering are caused by

war.” Comment on this statement paying close reference to
the poem ‘War is Kind.’
A. Utter destruction of war
1. Oxymoron → sarcastic satirizing (repetition found in
stanzas 1,3,5)
“Do not weep
War is kind”
“Point for them the virtue of slaughter
Make plain to them the excellence of killing”
2. Hyperbole (stanzas 3 and 5)
“A field where a thousand corpses lie”
3. Utter destruction of war.
Horse booming drums of the regiment
little souls who thirst for fight
These men were born to drill and die.

b. Wide scale suffering

1. Maiden who lost her lover
“Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind
Because your lover threw wild hands towards
And the affrighted steed ran on alone”
2. The babe who lost its father.

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“Do not weep babe, for war is kind
Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches
Raged at his breast, gulped and died”
3. Mother who lost her son
“Mother whose heart hung humble as a button
On the bright splendid shroud of your son.”

2022/2023 Northern Western Practice Past Paper – War is

Kind – Grade 11
“Only utter destruction and wide-scale suffering are caused by
war.” Comment on this statement paying close reference to
the poem ‘War is Kind.’
“War is Kind” by Stephen Crane is a poem resting under theme
of conflict. Through a five-stanza package, Crane attempts to
satirize the plight of war; this is apparent through the
oxymoronic title paired with a sarcastic tone. The narrator
addresses three victims of war, a maiden, a babe and a mother,
each of these victims have lost a loved on in the chaos of war,
and the narrator requests them to refrain from weeping.
Nonetheless, the narrator emphasizes that “only utter
destruction and wide-scale suffering are caused by war.”
As mentioned previously, Crane uses an oxymoron to visualize
the utter destruction of war:
“Do not weep
War is kind”
Not only is the oxymoron found in the title of the poem, but it is
also repeated in stanzas one, three, and five. The lack of logic
present in the oxymoronic statement accurately depicts the
utter destruction of war. Crane cynically adds more oxymorons
in order to satirize the honour of war related to soldiers:

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“Point for them the virtue of slaughter
Make plain to them the excellence of killing”
Evidently, the narrator refers to the expendable soldiers of war.
The so-called “virtue of slaughter,” and “the excellence of
killing” are oxymorons that undermine the glory of war and
emphasizes its futility and utter destruction.
Crane utilizes a hyperbolic statement to further disclose the
utter destruction of war:
“A field where a thousand corpses lie”
This hyperbolic statement is repeated in stanzas three and five
and heartless explores the utter destruction of war. The
magnitude of the fatalities of war is overwhelming and
ironically devalues the lives of the soldiers:
“Little souls who thirst for fight
These men were born to drill and die”
Crane once again uses an oxymoron, “little souls who thirst for
fight” to elucidate the utter destruction of war. Not only is “little
souls” a metaphor for the youth who act as soldiers of war, but
also it indicates that these innocent souls paradoxically thirst
for war. Once again, the expendability of these solders are
emphasized through the hyperbolic statement, “These men
were born to drill and die”
It is well known that wide-scale suffering is a product of the
utter destruction of war, and the narrator capitalizes on this
suffering while addressing the victims of war.
“Do not weep maiden, for war is kind
Because your lover threw wild hands towards the sky
And the affrighted steed ran on alone”
The maiden is seen weeping due to the death of her lover which
is euphemistically disclosed via the statement, “your lover

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threw wild hands towards the sky.” The oxymoronic affrighted
steed, once again, confirms that the soldier has fallen. The
maiden’s reaction to her lover’s demise is testament for the
wide scale suffering of war. Unfortunately, this suffering is not
limited to the maiden.
Subsequently, the narrator sarcastically consoles an infant who
has lost its father to war:
“Do not weep babe, for war is kind
Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches
Raged at his breast gulped and died.”
Here the babe’s father is a casualty of trench warfare and
ragefully dies during deployment. The colour symbol of yellow
indicates the lacklustre living conditions present in the
trenches, and the overall situation of the babe losing its father
indicates the wide-scale suffering caused by war.
The final victim that the narrator addresses is a mother who
lost her son due to the destruction of war.
“Mother whose heart hung humble as a button
on the bright splendid shroud of your son.”
Crane uses this situation to neutralize the glory of war, as the
mother, a victim of war, stands humble in the face of her
deceased son. The brilliant simile, “heart hung humble as a
button,” devalues the victimized mother’s emotional state; this
is paired with the oxymoron, “splendid shroud” which wraps
around her deceased son’s casket. Ironically, the glory of the
fallen soldier is condensed into a mere button.
Inclusively, Crane’s “War is Kind,” is a textual masterpiece that
satirizes war while visualizing the utter destruction and the
wide-scale suffered caused by war.