After class I was still caught by the line that we were discussing at the end of class, the three line stanza where the issue was whether or not it was comedic.
"Some cheered him home, but now as crowds cheer Goal.
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul."
The image that came up with this, as I believe Sofia mentioned, is possibly that a priest is doing rounds on the wounded soldiers and wishing them well, most likely before they die.
I'm aided by a bit of background information - I read this article in my history class last semester, where it concerned what exactly the soldiers wanted who returned from the front. What is more unique about this soldier was that he was so young, and he will die so young as well. But it seemed that each soldier, when they returned from the horrors of the front, wanted a more gender-traditional female to take care of them and nurse them back to health. Instead they found more modern women, women who dressed like men and sadly for them, few women who filled out the image that they dreamed of while they were fighting and losing comrades in the trenches. In this particular situation, where "he noticed how the women's eyes/ Passed from him to the strong men that were whole", these women are not described as being more modern, but they still ignore him.
This is supposed to get back to the idea that the gratitude given to him by the priest, or simply well-wisher, is what he wants and that there isn't anything comedic about it.
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i think the word we were using in class was closer to "sardonic" rather than "comedic." sardonic has a more bitter connotation, which makes sense considering the subject matter of the poem. reading the lines as being sardonic would also make sense of the italics. sometimes when a writer is meaning to be sardonic or sarcastic he will put the subject of the sarcasm in quotation marks or italics. the sardonic tone also fits with the rest of the poem, which implies a bitter attitude toward his disabled state, the war, and his own hasty decision to join the army. in the second stanza he recalls how the girls used to glance at him before he "threw away his knees." this is a sort of sardonic way of putting his injury, full of bitterness. he seems to be mocking or blaming himself for his disabled state. he didn't casually "throw his knees away," they were taken from him in a horribly violent way, and thus, his chances of finding a lady friend were taken away as well. When he talks about "Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits," i also sense that there is a bitter tone to it. he says nothing about propoganda or lies directly, but i think he means to imply it. did the "smiling" officers who signed him up for service, no questions asked give him the "hints" about glory and heroism that had seduced him?
the soldier who said that he craved a feminine caretaker when he returned from the war seems to have a lot in common with the man in this poem. his girlfriend meg seems to have abandoned him, and he says he went to war to please her, and calls her a "jilt," which is a lover who decieves. much of the poem is devoted to the man's feeling that he is doomed to live life without the company of a woman. the women "touch him like some queer disease," and there is only a "solomn man" who approaches him with thanks, and an inquiry about his soul. he doesn't seem to be thinking much about his soul, however. most of the poem is used to describe his body, and physical interactions with women. these are not things for which a priest can offer any solace. i don't think he is very grateful for what the man offers him. what the man is worried about is physical lonliness. the absence of touch, and physical expression of love. he is not commenting on the wholeness of his soul in this poem, but expressing his dispair in the fact that his body is no longer whole, and is envious of the "strong men that are whole" that all the women seem to look at.
the man went to war to impress the ladies, and now they do not even look at him. he will never impress a woman again. the only person who even talks to him in the entire poem is a solomn man who is maybe even a priest. he wanted women and cheers and glory, and got a basket of fruit and a "thanks." i think the man is definitly a little bitter. but he has also grown. he recognizes that his reasons for joining the war were silly. he is not really bitter toward the solomn man, but bitter toward the war, and the propoganda, and his own hasty decision to enlist.
i don't think the interaction with the solomn man is supposed to be comedic, but i think that the tone is sardonic, and that what the solomn man has to give the disabled man is not what he really craves, nor does it comfort him.
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