Andrew's Wiki
Rear Guard

Content

• Written at the toughest trench line in the war, at one of the lowest points of the war (April 1917, Hindenburg line)
• A person moves through the trenches, trying to find headquarters. Asks someone lying down, but finds out this person’s dead. Description of dead body ensues. And the person walks on.
  • Strange conflict: the discovery of the dead body doesn’t mean anything for trying to find HQ (that is it doesn’t change action) but it does change the way you feel
• It almost means the trenches are scarier than the war itself. It’s where death becomes domestic, just sitting there, inside the supposed safe area

Form

• Five stanzas of increasing numbers of lines: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
  • Gets slower and weightier, as if the person’s walking is getting harder and harder