Isaac Rosenberg
I killed them, but they would not die.
Yea! all the day and all the night
For them I could not rest or sleep,
Nor guard from them nor hide in flight.
Then in my agony I turned
And made my hands red in their gore.
In vain – for faster than I slew
They rose more cruel than before.
I killed and killed with slaughter mad;
I killed till all my strength was gone.
And still they rose to torture me,
For Devils only die in fun.
I used to think the Devil hid
In women’s smiles and wine’s carouse.
I called him Satan, Balzebub.
But now I call him, dirty louse.
© by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes
Analysis (AI Assisted)
This war poem portrays the relentless and futile struggle of a soldier trapped in an endless, maddening cycle of violence. The repetition of “I killed” sets a tone of desperation and frustration, as the speaker’s actions are unable to bring any resolution or peace. The enemy he faces is not just human, but something more insidious and persistent, almost supernatural, as “they would not die.” This sense of futility in the act of killing reflects the deeper hopelessness of war, where violence becomes an inescapable routine rather than a path to victory.
The speaker’s exhaustion is palpable. “I killed till all my strength was gone,” but the enemy “rose more cruel than before,” showing that no matter how much effort he puts into fighting, it never ends. This creates a sense of powerlessness; the act of killing, which should bring a sense of relief or justice, only intensifies his suffering. The line “For Devils only die in fun” introduces a bitter irony: the speaker is locked in a cycle of violence, yet the more he kills, the more it seems like a perverse game — a cruel, unending loop. This contrasts sharply with the traditional view of the devil as a metaphor for evil, showing that in the chaos of war, evil takes on an even more meaningless and frustrating form.
The speaker’s understanding of evil shifts throughout the poem. In the past, the devil was a figure tied to temptation and indulgence, “in women’s smiles and wine’s carouse,” things that can be easily recognized and avoided. But in the context of war, the speaker’s perception of evil becomes more personal and grotesque, as he now “calls him, dirty louse.” This final comparison is jarring and stark, reducing the vast cosmic evil of the devil to something much more trivial and repulsive. The “dirty louse” is not just a symbol of suffering, but something almost absurd — an infestation that can’t be gotten rid of, much like the unrelenting violence of war.
Through this transformation in how evil is perceived, the poem speaks to the dehumanizing effects of war. The soldier, who once had clear ideas of right and wrong, now finds himself reduced to an animalistic state, battling not just physical enemies, but internal torment as well. The Devil, in this case, is no longer a distant, abstract figure but something that infects the very environment around him — something that can never be fully eradicated, only temporarily suppressed in a brutal and ceaseless cycle. The despair of the speaker is not only in his physical exhaustion, but in the realization that no matter how much he fights, the war, like the devil, cannot be defeated in any meaningful way.