Andrew's Wiki
Dream Ers

Content

• Soldiers: action v dream
  • “Sworn to action” yet once action begins they are dreamers
• Makes you appreciate what you had before: home, fire, sport, holidays, films, even fights and the workaday routine
• When they are soldiers, they are cut off from future (which mirrors situation of death)

Form

• 2 stanzas of four lines each; one six-line stanza. Sonnet.
• Visionary: “I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats”
• Incantatory rhythm w/constant iambs
• It’s so denotative, so balanced and evenly rhythmic; mere regret an appreciation of the complexity of the situation rather than passion here