Home they brought her Warrior Dead
About the Poet
Alfred Lord Tennyson was born on August 6, 1806, in Lincolnshire, England. He escaped home and joined Trinity College with his brother. He used to store his memory so perfectly that he could compose beautiful poems from it. He and his brother published ‘Poems by Two Brothers’ in 1827. He published ‘Poems, Chiefly Lyrical’ in 1833, ‘Poems’ in 1842, ‘In Memoriam’ in 1850 and ‘The Idylls of the Kings’ in 1859. He was known as the royal poet of England, too. He died on October 6, 1892, and was buried at Westminster Abbey.
About the Poem
The poem ‘Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson, is made up of four stanzas, each consisting of four lines. The entire poem, with third person point of view, describes a particular incident. The incident is a recently-widowed woman’s reaction to her husband’s death in battle. This poem reflects the sorrowful life of a widow who has to worry about her child after the sole bread winner of the family dies.
In the poem, the reader is brought to see the events through the eyes of the grieving people and also through the eyes of the widowed mother whose only reason for living is for the sake of her child. The poet shows the strong and bearing nature of motherhood that forgets all the sorrows on earth when their children are in need of their love and affection.
Summary of the Poem
When the poem begins, the speaker informs that the dead body of a soldier is brought to his home after he died in battle. All the observers expect his wife to mourn at the sight of her dead husband. However, she neither swoons nor cries. Her friends say that she must weep or she will die as the paint-up pain she keeps inside her, eventually may have an adverse effect on her health.
The people around her praise her husband’s worthiness, truth and nobility. They grieve and speak of memories. However, none of their words seem to have any effect on her. She is still motionless and silent. Perhaps she is unable to accept the death, even as those around her speak of him and pay tribute to his memory.
One of the young women walks up to the dead body and removes the cloth that is covering his face. This particular friend shows her the face of her dead husband, hoping that this will help the woman to be able to grieve properly. But, she refuses to move or to shed a tear.
Finally, the mystery of the widow’s motionlessness and silence is solved. An old nurse of ninety places the woman’s child on her knee. To everyone’s relief, her tears come down like the summer storm. In addition to this, she tells her child that she will go on with her life for his sake.
Thus, it is obvious that during the entire time, the woman has thought of her child who will have to live life without his father. This concern has kept her paralyzed and speechless. But in the end, she determines to care for her child in every way and never lets him feel abandoned or unloved.
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