1943

1943

They toughened us for war. In the high-school auditorium
Ed Monahan knocked out Dominick Esposito in the first round

of the heavyweight finals, and ten months later Dom died
in the third wave at Tarawa. Every morning of the war

our Brock-Hall Dairy delivered milk from horse-drawn wagons
to wooden back porches in southern Connecticut. In winter,

frozen cream lifted the cardboard lids of glass bottles,
Grade A or Grade B, while marines bled to death in the surf,

or the right engine faltered into Channel silt, or troops marched
—what could we do?—with frostbitten feet as white as milk.

—Donald Hall


This poem strikes me in several different ways. Primarily, I was drawn to it because 1943 refers to World War II, one of the most fascinating historical eras (in my opinion). The poem however hardly even speaks of the war, but instead of the daily life with an undermining tone of war. It, in a way, reflects war- when one is not actively fighting or in some other way involved in it, the day to day life can seem unchanged on the surface- but it isn't. War effects everything- especially a war to the degree of WWII. The author first speaks of becoming prepared, "toughened up" for war. However, the person being "toughened up" for war died ten months later. It is a difficult concept; to be "toughened up" for death. There is a melancholy to this segment, because that is indeed what has happened.The melancholy undertone continues as the writer talks about the milk, which is a mundane, daily task that is somehow still effected by the poison of the war. Finally, the poem ends talking about the war again, bringing what has been an undertone to the whole poem to the surface- "what can we do?"