The Gift in Wartime Summary

The Gift in Wartime is a powerful anti-war poem written by Tran Mong Tu. The poem shows the unequal and painful exchange between the speaker and an unnamed “you,” which symbolically represents war.

In the first stanza, the speaker offers roses and a wedding gown, which represent love, peace, and a hopeful future. In response, the “you” gives medals, silver stars, and a badge. These items stand for war honors, which appear cold, impersonal, and meaningless compared to the speaker’s emotional gifts.

This unequal exchange continues throughout the poem. In the third stanza, the speaker gives their youth, which symbolizes life, dreams, and potential. In return, the “you” gives the smell of blood, clearly showing violence, death, and suffering caused by war. As the poem progresses, the speaker’s gifts become more emotional and personal, while the “you” responds with cruelty and indifference.

In another stanza, the speaker sacrifices their pleasant springtime for harsh winters, showing how war takes away joy and replaces it with pain and hardship. Yet the “you” remains heartless and gives lips without smiles and arms without tenderness, symbolizing emotional emptiness and loss of humanity.

In the final stanza, the speaker mentions shrapnel, meaning pieces of bombs, which makes it clear that the “you” represents war. Through this poem, the poet highlights how war forces innocent people to give up love, youth, happiness, and peace, while offering only violence, suffering, and death in return.

The Gift in Wartime Exercise

Understanding the Text

Answer the following questions.

a. Who is the speaker addressing and why can that person not hear or understand what she is saying?
The speaker is addressing her husband. He cannot hear or understand her because he has died in the war. She is speaking to him emotionally, even though he is no longer alive.

b. What can you infer about the speaker’s feelings for the person addressed as “you”?
The speaker’s feelings for the person addressed as “you” are full of deep love, affection, and devotion. She has given him her youth, happiness, and dreams. Even after his death, she continues to love him and hopes to meet him again in another life.

c. What is the speaker’s attitude toward war?
The speaker has a bitter and negative attitude toward war. War has taken away her husband and destroyed her happiness. She clearly sees war as cruel and meaningless.

d. In what ways do you think this person’s fate has affected the speaker?
The person’s fate of dying in war has deeply affected the speaker. With his death, her youth, happiness, and dreams have ended. She becomes lonely, helpless, and full of sorrow. Her life turns empty and painful.

e. What does the speaker promise at the end of the poem? Why do you think the speaker does this?
At the end of the poem, the speaker promises to meet her beloved again in the next life. She wants to take the shrapnel as proof of how he died. She does this because her love is very deep, and she wishes to be reunited with him even after death.

Reference to the Context

a. What is the theme of the poem?
The theme of the poem is the cruelty and inhumanity of war. It shows how war destroys lives and happiness. When a soldier dies, his family and loved ones suffer deeply. The poem shows that war offers only pain, loss, and sorrow, and no reward can replace a lost life.

b. What imagery from the poem made the greatest impression on you? Why?
The image of shrapnel makes the greatest impression because it clearly shows the true gift of war. Shrapnel not only kills the soldier but also shatters the life of the one who loves him. It strongly represents destruction and suffering.

c. Which figurative language is used in the poem? Explain with examples.
The poem uses several figurative devices such as irony, imagery, anaphora, metaphor, and apostrophe. Irony is seen in the idea of “gifts” that bring pain instead of joy, such as medals and shrapnel. Imagery is used in roses, blood-stained clothes, and lifeless body parts. Anaphora appears in the repeated use of “I offer you” and “you give me.” Apostrophe is used when the speaker directly addresses her dead husband.

d. What does the speaker “offer” in this poem? What does the person addressed as “you” give in return?
The speaker offers roses, her wedding gown, her youth, clouds, and even cold winters, symbolizing sacrifice and love. In return, the “you” gives medals, badges, the smell of blood, lifeless lips, arms without tenderness, blind eyes, and a motionless body, showing the cruelty of war.

e. Discuss the poem in relation to apostrophe.
The poem uses apostrophe because the speaker directly addresses her dead husband as if he were alive. She speaks to him at his grave and shares her pain, love, and sacrifice. This technique makes her grief more emotional and highlights the tragic effects of war on loved ones.

Reference to the Context

a. What is the theme of the poem?
The main theme of the poem is the cruelty, inhumanity, and destruction caused by war. The poem clearly shows that war does not bring honor or happiness but only pain, loss, and suffering. When a soldier dies in war, not only his life ends, but the lives of his family members and loved ones are also ruined. The speaker loses her husband, her youth, and her happiness because of war. The poem strongly suggests that medals and bravery awards cannot compensate for the loss of human life. Through the speaker’s sorrow, the poet presents war as meaningless and destructive, affecting innocent people emotionally, physically, and mentally.

b. What imagery from the poem made the greatest impression on you? Why?
The image of shrapnel makes the greatest impression on me because it powerfully represents the true nature of war. Shrapnel refers to broken metal pieces from bombs that kill or injure people. This image shows how war gives nothing but death and destruction. It not only destroys the body of the soldier but also shatters the life, dreams, and happiness of the loved one left behind. The image is shocking and painful, and it clearly shows that war’s so-called gifts are actually symbols of suffering and loss.

c. Which figurative language is used in the poem? Explain with examples.
The poem uses several types of figurative language to express pain and grief. Irony is used when war is said to give “gifts” like medals, badges, and shrapnel, which actually cause sorrow instead of happiness. Imagery is used through pictures such as red roses, blood-stained clothes, lifeless lips, blind eyes, and a motionless body, helping readers visualize the horror of war. Anaphora is used in the repeated phrases “I offer you” and “you give me,” which emphasizes the unequal exchange between love and violence. Apostrophe is also used because the speaker directly addresses her dead husband as if he were alive. These devices make the poem emotional and powerful.

d. What does the speaker “offer” in this poem? What does the person addressed as “you” give in return?
In the poem, the speaker offers many meaningful and personal things such as roses, her wedding gown, her youth, her happiness, clouds, and even her pleasant springtime. These offerings symbolize love, sacrifice, hope, and devotion. In return, the person addressed as “you,” which represents war, gives her medals, badges, the smell of blood, lips without a smile, arms without tenderness, blind eyes, and a motionless body. This unequal exchange highlights how war takes away life and love and gives only pain, emptiness, and death.

e. Discuss the poem in relation to apostrophe.
The poem is a strong example of apostrophe because the speaker directly addresses her dead husband as if he could hear and understand her. She speaks to him at his grave, offers gifts, and shares her pain and sacrifice. Although he is not alive, this direct address makes her grief more real and emotional. The use of apostrophe helps readers feel the depth of her sorrow and emphasizes how deeply war affects those who are left behind. It also shows the loneliness and helplessness of the speaker after losing her loved one.

Reference Beyond the Text

a. How might the speaker have benefited from saying what she did? Explain.
The speaker benefits greatly by expressing her grief through words. When a person loses a loved one, especially in a tragic way like war, the pain can become overwhelming if it is kept inside. By speaking to her dead husband, the speaker releases her deep sorrow, anger, loneliness, and frustration. This emotional expression helps reduce the burden in her heart and mind. Talking about her loss allows her to remember her love, express her sacrifice, and give voice to the pain caused by war. It also helps her slowly accept the reality of her husband’s death and find a way to move forward in life. Sharing grief, whether through speaking or writing, is a powerful healing process, and through this expression, the speaker finds some emotional relief and strength to cope with her suffering.

b. Write an essay on the effects of war.

Effects of War

War has serious and long-lasting effects on individuals, societies, and nations. It causes the loss of countless innocent lives, including soldiers, women, and children. Families are destroyed, and many people are left homeless, jobless, and helpless. War damages a country’s economy, ruins infrastructure, and disrupts education and healthcare systems. People suffer from physical injuries as well as psychological trauma, fear, and depression, which may last for years.

Women and children suffer the most during war. Children lose their parents, education, and childhood, while women face emotional pain and insecurity. War also creates hatred, violence, and instability in society. Even after war ends, its effects continue through poverty, mental illness, and broken communities. Therefore, war brings more destruction than progress and leaves deep scars on humanity. Peace is essential for a safe, stable, and meaningful life.