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Questions and Answers of Asleep in The Valley

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88 views

Questions and Answers of Asleep in The Valley

Uploaded by

anupam purkait
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Questions and answers of Asleep in

the Valley
Q.Justify the title of the poem "Asleep In The Valley".
Ans:-Arthur Rimbaud's poem "Asleep In The Valley" is a very beautiful poem in
which he has presented the reality of war. But the poet does not reveal much about
war.He gives a natural description of a valley where a slow stream flows.He has
focused much on the scenic beauty of the valley than destructive consequence of
until the very end of the poem.He proceeds with the description of a young soldier
who is blissfully sleeping.His body is stretched in the heavy bushes.His feet are
among the flowers.These flowers may Symbolically refer to homage to the martyr
paid by nature because his devotion has snatched his life away.So he is sleeping
forever peacefully.The soldier is a victim of war that has been made clear by the
expression 'the two red holes'.It exposes how inhumanly the soldier is victimised in
war.These red holes are nothing but 'bullet wounds'.So the title of the poem is very
appropriate.

Q. Why does the poet ask nature to keep the soldier worm?
Ans:- In the line, ‘Ah, Nature, keep him warm; he may catch cold’, the tenderness
the poet feels for the dead soldier is obvious. He implores Nature to keep his body
from growing cold. Cold here is symbolic of death. The poet knows the soldier is
already dead but he wants his readers to wait till the last line of the poem to figure
this important detail out. And that is why he uses the phrase ‘catch a cold’ for its
colloquial meaning, alluding to contracting the common respiratory infection. So
the poet asks nature to keep the soldier warm.

Q. Describe the valley and it's surroundings where the soldier is lying.
Ans:- The poem is written like a telescope which focuses on different parts of the
valley and zooms in on the details. The poet focuses on a panoramic view of the
valley, from which he moves to the mountains and then the body of the soldier in
the meadow. A small stream is flowing through the valley. There are various types
of flowers and bushes in that valley. He zooms in on the soldier’s feet which are
among the flowers. His pillow is made of fern.Rimbaud waits until the last line of
the poem to reveal that the soldier is dead. His delay in portraying the death of the
solider is perhaps to heighten the effect and to shock the readers into seeing the
negative impacts of war.

Q. What techniques have been used by the poet to subvert the after-effect
of war.
Ans:-‘Asleep in the Valley’ is undoubtedly a war poem. But the after-effect of war is
subverted by the poetic techniques of the poet. The poet uses subtle techniques to
make the war ravaged valley appear bearable. The poet, through this poem, speaks
of many things like death, war and life. But mostly, he chooses to focus on the life
retained after war is waged and destruction is wrought. The poet’s dilemma here is
to either choose death or life, and he chooses life. But with the choice comes the
inevitable threat of death. His poem then entangles itself in a dialogue between life
and death and uses ‘sleep’, which encompasses both, to provide the main
symbology of the poem. We can also see in this poem, the birth of the Symbolist
tradition.

Q. What poetic devices have been employed by the poet in the poem Asleep
in the Valley.
Ans:- The poet has employed many poetic devices in his poem Asleep in the Valley.
Some of them are as follows-‘A small green valley where a slow stream flows/ And
leaves long strands of silver’- This poem is rhythmical, and full of alliteration. This
is the first instance of Alliteration used in the poem. Alliteration is the occurrence
of same sounds or same letters adjacently or in close quarters.‘sun-soaked bed’-
this is another instance of Alliteration.‘Ah, Nature, keep him warm; he may catch
cold’- this is an instance of an Apostrophe. An apostrophe is a figure of speech
used to address an inanimate object or an abstract quality. This is also an act of
Personification. Nature is personified as a human being who is to assume the role
of a caretaker for the sleeping soldier.‘In his side there are two red holes’- this line
is an example of Metonymy. Metonymy is a figure of speech by which the name or
meaning of a thing or concept is substituted by its attributes. Instead of writing
‘two bullet holes’, Rimbaud writes ‘two red holes’. Bullets puncture the body and
causes bleeding which turns the holes red. Thus, he substitutes the word bullet by
red, which represents the quality of the bullet.

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