Justin Benner

There is nothing better than reading a poem that contradicts the title in almost every way. That’s the way Stephen Crane’s “War is Kind” poem is. It’s not Stephen Cane if it isn’t a graphic or extremely blunt description of war. However, in this poem he takes a slightly different approach. While he still talks about death and blunt descriptions, he is showing war is not kind but rather war is awful and brutal and almost downright inhuman. This is coming from the same author as who wrote The Red Badge of Courage, his most famous — and most brutal — story. This poem is almost a critique on human attitude toward war. Americans in the 21^st century are sick of war; when this was written, it was quite a few years post-Civil War. Americans post-Civil War were also very tired of war. Having just fought an extremely bloody Civil War killing hundreds of thousands of men, it is easy to see how American writers might be antagonistic toward war.

“War is Kind” isn’t really a long poem. It stands at a nice 5 stanzas long, each stanza being on average anywhere from 3-5 lines long. It starts off by talking about a woman whose husband has been shot and killed. We can tell by context her husband was most likely in a cavalry unit in the Civil War. The good old cavalry are always the first to die not only in Historical Gaming class but also in literature. But the stanza ends with “Do not weep. War is Kind.” This seems like a rather harsh and unwarranted statement after just having her husband die

In the second stanza Crane makes the statement: “These men were born to drill and die. The unexplained glory flies above them.” This statement makes perfect sense coming from a realist. Realism accepts no deeper meaning in any form of reality so Stephen Crane observes men enlist in the thousands, drill, and subsequently die for “the unexplained glory.” This unexplained glory, I believe, is patriotism. Upon face value, patriotism is simply a reason for men to charge headfirst into almost certain death for glory. So once again Crane’s realism shines through. But he doesn’t stop there with his graphic descriptions. He then goes on in the third stanza about a man who has been shot in the chest and dies grasping his chest and falling into a trench.

The fourth stanza is more symbolic than anything. It starts off describing the flag, but then talks about how war teaches men the “excellence of killing.” War has been a kill-or-be-killed situation ever since the Middle Ages. The “excellence of killing” is in reference to the training a soldier might receive about how when told to fire at the enemy he must obey and shoot, lest he be shot first.

The last stanza talks about a mother, a mother whose “heart hung humble as a button. On the bright splendid shroud of your son.” This mother has lost her son to war. In fact in three out of the five stanzas, the writer switches the affected party. In the first stanza it’s a maiden, in the third it’s a babe (which could be replaced with child or young adult), and the fifth culminates with the mother. Each party is affected by a different death, yet all connected. Each of them has lost a spouse/parent to war, hence the irony in the title.

This poem is a harsh reminder there is nothing pretty about war. War has always existed in mankind ever since man’s downfall. War is an ugly, harsh place where death and fear reign strong. Soldiers during World War I described it as hell. But God can still use war in His grand plan. He told the Israelites to go to war many times in the Old Testament. Even the worst of things in life can turn out for good.

“…a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace…” Ecclesiastes 3:8.