Asleep In The Valley Broad Questions and Answers - Arthur Rimbaud - WB H.S

Class-XII

Poetry

Asleep In The Valley

-Arthur Rimbaud

Asleep In The Valley Questions and Answers

Broad Questions and Answers (Long Q+A)

1. Justify the title of the poem "Asleep In The Valley".

Ans :- Arthur Rimbaud's poem "Asleep In The Valley" is a very beautiful poem in which he has presented the reality of war. But the poet does not reveal much about war.He gives a natural description of a valley where a slow stream flows.He has focused much on the scenic beauty of the valley than destructive consequence of until the very end of the poem.He proceeds with the description of a young soldier who is blissfully sleeping.His body is stretched in the heavy bushes.His feet are among the flowers.These flowers may Symbolically refer to homage to the martyr paid by nature because his devotion has snatched his life away.So he is sleeping forever peacefully.The soldier is a victim of war that has been made clear by the expression 'the two red holes' . It exposes how inhumanly the soldier is victimised in war.These red holes are nothing but 'bullet wounds'. So the title of the poem is very appropriate.

2. Evaluate 'Asleep in the Valley' as an anti-war poem. 

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How is Rimbaud's attitude towards war revealed in the poem 'Asleep in the Valley'?

Ans :-  'Asleep in the Valley' is undoubtedly a war poem.  In the poem Rimbaud expresses the fruitlessness of war. He has first-hand experience of war and reveals the horror of warfare. Initially, a young soldier is found sleeping in a beautiful sunlit valley. But, at the end of the poem a closer look reveals that the soldier has the bullet-wounds: “In his side there are two red holes.”The soldier is a victim of war that has been made clear by the expression 'the two red holes' . He will be never awaken again. The young life is unnaturally nipped in the bud. The poem proclaims the futility of war with the contrast of life and nature. Grim death is the inevitability of war and the poem ironically presents the monstrous destruction that a soldier has experience in warfare.It exposes how inhumanly the soldier is victimised in war.

3. Why does the poet ask nature to keep the soldier worm?

Ans :- In the line, ‘Ah, Nature, keep him warm; he may catch cold’, the tenderness the poet feels for the dead soldier is obvious. He implores Nature to keep his body from growing cold. Cold here is symbolic of death. The poet knows the soldier is already dead but he wants his readers to wait till the last line of the poem to figure this important detail out. And that is why he uses the phrase ‘catch a cold’ for its colloquial meaning, alluding to contracting the common respiratory infection. So the poet asks nature to keep the soldier warm.

4. Describe the valley and it's surroundings where the soldier is lying.

Ans :- The poem is written like a telescope which focuses on different parts of the valley and zooms in on the details. The poet focuses on a panoramic view of the valley, from which he moves to the mountains and then the body of the soldier in the meadow. A small stream is flowing through the valley. There are various types of flowers and bushes in that valley. He zooms in on the soldier’s feet which are among the flowers. His pillow is made of fern.Rimbaud waits until the last line of the poem to reveal that the soldier is dead. His delay in portraying the death of the solider is perhaps to heighten the effect and to shock the readers into seeing the negative impacts of war.

5. What techniques have been used by the poet to subvert the after-effect of war. 

Ans :- ‘Asleep in the Valley’ is undoubtedly a war poem. But the after-effect of war is subverted by the poetic techniques of the poet. The poet uses subtle techniques to make the war ravaged valley appear bearable. The poet, through this poem, speaks of many things like death, war and life. But mostly, he chooses to focus on the life retained after war is waged and destruction is wrought. The poet’s dilemma here is to either choose death or life, and he chooses life. But with the choice comes the inevitable threat of death. His poem then entangles itself in a dialogue between life and death and uses ‘sleep’, which encompasses both, to provide the main symbology of the poem. We can also see in this poem, the birth of the Symbolist tradition.

6. What poetic devices have been employed by the poet in the poem Asleep in the Valley.

Ans :- The poet has employed many poetic devices in his poem Asleep in the Valley. Some of them are as follows-‘A small green valley where a slow stream flows/ And leaves long strands of silver’- This poem is rhythmical, and full of alliteration. This is the first instance of Alliteration used in the poem. Alliteration is the occurrence of same sounds or same letters adjacently or in close quarters.‘sun-soaked bed’- this is another instance of Alliteration.‘Ah, Nature, keep him warm; he may catch cold’- this is an instance of an Apostrophe. An apostrophe is a figure of speech used to address an inanimate object or an abstract quality.This is also an act of Personification. Nature is personified as a human being who is to assume the role of a caretaker for the sleeping soldier.‘In his side there are two red holes’- this line is an example of Metonymy. Metonymy is a figure of speech by which the name or meaning of a thing or concept is substituted by its attributes. Instead of writing ‘two bullet holes’, Rimbaud writes ‘two red holes’. Bullets puncture the body and causes bleeding which turns the holes red. Thus, he substitutes the word bullet by red, which represents the quality of the bullet.

7. ..“His smile is like an infant’s”- Whose smile is like an infant’s? Why is his smile compared to that of an infant? Why does the poet say like that?

Answer :–The smile of the young soldier is like an infant’s.

The soldier is sleeping peacefully in the valley. He has a smile on his face, which is gentle and without guile. He has died young having not experienced any complexity of life. Therefore, his smile is innocent like that of a child.

Here the poet expresses how terrible the effect of war can be. The young soldier was innocent, and he had no experience of warfare at all. He was forced to depart from this beautiful world when his life was beginning to grow. The poet hates war. So, the poet asserts this line.