Isaac Rosenberg—Dead Man’s Dump p1104

This story was really depressing and filled with vivid images. It is describing a scene that is most likely a battleground that has recently been abandoned by the soldiers. A few people are riding on carriages across the field and just observing the many dead bodies in pools of blood laying on the ground around them.

The wheels lurched over sprawled dead
But pained them not, through their bones crunched,
Their shut mouths made no moan
They lie there huddled, friend and foeman,
Man born of man, and born of woman. (lines 7-11)
We heard his weak scream,
We heard his very last sound,
And our wheels grazed his dead face. (lines 84-86)

When I read this, the first thing that came to my mind was not exactly about death in war; but it was more about death in general. It mostly made me think about how we all come together in death and there is no separation that exists as it does now. Throughout this world there are so many ways that people are separated—race, social class, sex, nationality, etc.—and in this narration these soldiers were separated by the country that they were defending. But in the end, men from both sides and probably different nationalities were spread out over the ground over a large area of land. In a way it seems like death brought unity among these men—“friend and foeman” (line 11). What I contemplated most about after reading this was mainly wondering how the human race has become so divided in almost every aspect; and it appears that as time passes, it only gets worse. Maybe I’m being a little optimistic and unrealistic, but I anticipate the day where we do live in unity and not have to wait for death for that to happen.