Naming of Parts

This poem is constructed as a series of oppositions between death—represented by the gun and war generally—and life—represented by bees, flowers, and trees flourishing in springtime. Through this contrast, Reed suggests that war and militarism require a willful, effortful blindness to nature's vitality—in other words, in order to participate in war, soldiers must choose death over life. This choice of death over life is reflected again and again in the speaker's tone. His language is harsh and terse, and he delivers an outdated script, full of instructions that don't apply to the soldiers before him, as if he himself is in some sense no longer fully alive or capable of change.

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