Published in his first poetry collection, Harmonium, in 1923, “The Death of a Soldier” is one of Wallace Stevens’s lesser-known war poems and describes the bitter insignificance of a soldier’s death during World War I. The Modernist Stevens, known for his opaque and difficult style, won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1955 Collected Poems. His work is often concerned with human consciousness’ relation to the world, particularly the power of imagination on perceptions of reality. His work is characterized by language play and centers the human mind. Stevens was too old to be drafted into the First World War and wrote “The Death of a Soldier” as a civilian, far away from the action of battle. The poem laments the tragedy of a soldier’s death on a battlefield; there is no procession or ceremony, and, due to the sheer number of soldiers who lost their lives daily through this bloody war, his name would have appeared among hundreds of others. “The Death of a Soldier” calls attention to the lack of individuality and the erasure of identity as a consequence of dying in the call of duty. Utilizing nature and the season of autumn to describe the tragedy, the poem is an elegy for the many nameless and forgotten soldiers who lost their lives and never received a proper burial during World War I.

Poet Biography

Wallace Stevens was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in October 1879 and is a key figure in American Modernism. From a young age, Stevens was well known by his friends and classmates as a prolific writer. In high school he was a reporter for his school’s newspaper and distinguished himself as a strong orator. His high marks and scholarly disposition led to his education at Harvard University where, by his sophomore year, he began writing regularly for the Harvard Advocate. By the end of his junior year, he received all of the school’s honors for writing. Later, he became the president and editor in chief of the publication Harvard Monthly, where he would publish several of his own works and gain recognition within the university as a talented writer. Unfortunately, due to family financial issues, Stevens was forced to withdraw from the university and went on to work as a journalist for the New York Evening Post. However, he found the job dull and eventually pursued a law degree. After receiving his degree in 1904, Stevens worked in various law firms, eventually finding his niche in insurance law. He obtained a job as vice president of the Equitable Surety Company in New York City where he worked for the rest of his life.

During his early years working in law, Stevens produced some of his first notable poems, and in 1916 he published his award winning play Three Travelers Watch a Sunrise. He spent the next few years collecting and organizing his poems for publication and released his first collection Harmonium in 1923. He went on to write numerous poems and publish various collections, ultimately winning the Pulitzer Prize for his Collected Poems in 1955. Stevens’s work is known for its vast vocabulary and rigorous precision, exploring poetry as a fusion between imagination and objective reality. His philosophically dense and abstract language as well as the thematic complexity of his work has made him a notoriously difficult writer, but his devotion to examining the human condition created a lasting legacy for Stevens as one of the greatest American poets of all time.

Poem Text

Stevens, Wallace. “The Death of a Soldier.” 1923. The Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The poem begins with an observation of how life seems to shrink before an expected death, and this state of being is compared to autumn. Immediately after making the comparison, the speaker states that a soldier dies. The soldier’s death does not linger; he does not ensure that everyone knows and is affected by his passing, nor does he receive some large funeral service. Instead, the soldier’s death happens quickly and the world moves on—again, like in autumn when the wind stops. But, even as the wind stops, the clouds keep passing by, going about their business.