Poem Analysis: The War Prayer

The War Prayer carries a heavy anti-war message using a cynical tone of religion. The setting of the poem is at height when Imperialism was the strongest. Twain used collective phrases to glorify war and emphasize patriotism. Twain is able to capture this setting by describing a celebration in the streets, “the drums were beat, the bands playing, the top pistols popping, the bunches firecrackers hissing and spluttering”, “flags flashed in the sun” (Perkins, 57). To further capture this image Twain used the pastors speech of “devotion to flag and country. Then in a twist Twain is able to carry out his anti-war message. Twain describes a man in “long body clothed in a robe” to deliver his message. The man message was, “if you pray for the success of your army, basically of praying for the destruction of …show more content…
In this case he uses the wall. There are two types of boundaries used physical and mental. Frost uses “And on a day we meet to walk the line, And set the wall between us as we go as a physical boundary”. Then describes “We keep the wall between us once again” as the mental boundary. Frost further explains that “Good fences make good neighbors.” (Perkins, 79). Simply implying boundaries are good. They make better neighbors because this side is your side and this is mine side. What is on your side is yours and my side is mine. This way there is no fighting over whose is what. The boundary completely squashes conflict and gives each other their space and privacy. I believe this to be true today as now fences are still used today. Although today the bigger and sturdier the fence delivers more of a message of “Keep out” compare to the smaller and less sturdier fences saying: “Please don’t step here”.
The Yellow Paper was a piece on femininity. The poem describes the struggles women faced in the late 1800’s. Gilman describes imprisonment of women and the control men had over