Ewart Alan Mackintosh
Where the light wraith of death goes dancing
In and out of the wavering line,
Now retreating and now advancing
Till opposite you he makes the sign,
Though the wind of his breath be on you,
Though in your flesh you feel the smart,
There have been worse things laid upon you,
Be steadfast and endure my heart.
There is no need of honour for you,
There is no gift the gods can send,
Only the weary days before you.
Only endurance to the end.
This remains that in all temptation
Still your head shall be lifted high.
You that have known a worse damnation.
Why should you be afraid to die ?
You that are dead and damned already,
How should you be afraid of death ?
Strength remains to you firm and steady
Enduring still to your latest breath,
Eyes to see and ears for hearing,
Things and words you would fain forget,
And anger to slay the snake of fearing
That lives in the heart of the dead man yet.
Fear? If hope is a thing forgotten.
What can you fear the gods will do ?
If the heart and kernel of life is rotten
What is the husk to trouble you ?
Stand up straight to your work, be strong, lad.
Never a fear of bullet or shell.
You that have lived in hell for long, lad.
Needn’t be fearing to die in hell.
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Analysis (AI Assisted)
This poem grapples with the soldier’s internal battle during wartime — a struggle not only against external forces but also against fear and hopelessness. The speaker addresses the reader, perhaps a fellow soldier or himself, urging them to face death with defiance and fortitude. Through a series of haunting images and unflinching advice, the poem speaks to the psychological toll of war, where death becomes a familiar companion, and life, a ceaseless endurance of suffering.
The first stanza introduces the figure of “the light wraith of death,” a spectral presence that hovers on the periphery of life and war, teasing and taunting the soldiers. This wraith is not static; it advances and retreats, playing with the soldiers’ perception of life and death, making its presence known without ever fully claiming them. The metaphor of death as a “wraith” implies an inescapable, ethereal danger — ever present, yet impossible to fully confront or avoid. The soldier feels its “breath” on him, but despite the sharp “smart” of fear and pain, the speaker encourages him to endure. “There have been worse things laid upon you” — a haunting line that hints at the atrocities the soldier has already faced, a reminder that this is not the worst that life can throw at them.
In the second stanza, the poem turns inward, confronting the reality of war from a place of resignation and disillusionment. There is no more glory or honor to be sought, no divine intervention or reward awaiting the soldier. Instead, all that remains is endurance, the bitter truth that the only thing left for a soldier is to survive, to “endure to the end.” The speaker challenges the soldier’s fear, asking why he should be afraid to die when he has already experienced so much suffering. This line, “Why should you be afraid to die?” underscores the dehumanizing effects of war — how suffering, pain, and loss have rendered the idea of death somewhat irrelevant, something that has already been lived in the heart of the soldier.
The third stanza deepens this sense of hopelessness. “You that are dead and damned already,” the speaker says, addressing the soldier as if death has already claimed him in spirit, if not in body. The soldier has been “dead and damned” by the horrors of war, his soul ravaged by the things he’s seen and done. The soldier is no longer afraid of death because, in a sense, he has already lived through it. The stark imagery of “strength remains” implies that the physical body may still be intact, but the mental and emotional toll has already destroyed much of what it means to be human. Fear becomes irrelevant when the soldier has been “damned already” by the brutality of the war — all that is left is to “endure” and push through the horror.
Fear and hope are contrasted in the fourth stanza, where the speaker posits that when hope is lost and “the heart and kernel of life is rotten,” death itself becomes a trivial matter. The soldier is urged to “stand up straight to your work” and “be strong,” not because of some idealistic notion of heroism, but because fear of death no longer holds meaning. When a man has “lived in hell for long,” what is the fear of dying in hell? The repetition of hell here is striking, not just as a place of torment, but as a living, ongoing condition that the soldier already endures daily. If war is hell, then death in war is merely a continuation of that suffering — something that no longer brings fear, but a grim acceptance.
In essence, the poem is a meditation on the toll of war, on the stripping away of hope, honor, and fear. It suggests that the soldier, in enduring the endless horrors of battle, has been reduced to something less than human — “dead and damned already” — and that in this state, death no longer has power over him. Instead of fearing death, the soldier is urged to find strength in the face of it, to continue fighting because it is the only thing left to do. The absence of hope, the resignation to an endless cycle of violence and suffering, leads the soldier to a fatalistic, yet paradoxically empowering place — death is no longer something to fear because it is the inevitable release from a life already poisoned by the horrors of war.
The poem’s message is stark and unrelenting: war dehumanizes, strips away fear, and leaves soldiers with only endurance as their weapon. The speaker’s call to action — to stand strong, to never fear the bullet or shell — is not a call to courage in the traditional sense, but a bitter acceptance that, having already faced hell, death itself is nothing more than the next step in the soldier’s eternal torment.