Hello friends today we are discuss this question, the question is -Look at the word ‘asleep’. What do we normally associate with the word? When does the reader recognise that the soldier is asleep in a different sense? Or, Do you agree that the word ‘asleep’ has been used in an ironical way in the poem ‘Asleep In the Valley’? Discuss with reference to the text.
The word ‘asleep’ is usually associated with the act of sleeping. But in the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’ the word ‘asleep’ has been used in an ironical way. One who sleeps also wakes up. Initially, the reader is led to believe by the poet through the skilful construction of image that the soldier is sleeping peacefully on the green valley. Neither the bright sunlight nor the humming tune of the insects are able to disturb his repose. The concluding line of the poem makes the reader realise that the soldier is a casualty of war. Rimbaud jolts the reader by stating that “In his side there are two red holes”. Thus, the reader eventually recognises that the young soldier is asleep in a different sense. He is lying cold and dead in the midst of the warm valley brimming with life. He is made to leave his business on earth incomplete by the ravages of warfare.