most likely it is more of a vague insight to, perhaps, a specific excursion in which several people left to encounter the opposing force and those survivors are just now returning. Given the mood of the piece, the survivors are badly beaten and wounded, adding to the despair felt throughout the work. The words “paler now”(Heaney 18), hang at the end of the stanza, causing a sad pause before the sentence continues and describes how little changed in the appearance the boy is in death, the difference being his paler complexion and “poppy bruise”(Heaney 19). This is easily translated to flowing blood of the wounds of the soldiers against their pale, blood drained, skin. The term “boy , could almost be used to describe new recruits and their exuberance, but lack of experience. It could also be merely used in a pure military sense, as when referring to our soldiers in times of war. The term “boys” is almost always used to talk of our heroes fighting for our causes. This lends a closeness and supportive tone to back them in times of war. “The bumper knocked him clear,” (Heaney 21) tells us that the boy was hit by a bus or some sort of motor vehicle. Often, when describing a military onslaught, the opposing force is dramatized into a sort of machine. The enemy is being blamed for this loss, and there is a desire to make them seem cold, heartless, and calloused, like a machine. The “bumper” (Heaney 21) could easily represent the weapons of the opposing force, while the machine itself is a symbol of the enemy.The final line stands out on its own. “A four foot box, a foot for every year”(Heaney 22) brings about an absolute sense of remorse. Almost every word is emphasized so that the reader must take in the line’s message and the shock and deep grief that the family must have felt. There is an element of shock for the reader reading it for the first time also, wh...
