“His smile… without guile.”- Mention the figure of speech used here. What does the poet want to mean here?

The poet here makes use of a simile, where he compares the smile on the soldier’s face with that of an infant’s.

Rimbaud here emphasises upon the innocence reflected on the face of the soldier who lies peacefully on the green, sun-soaked bed of the valley. The poet wishes to draw the attention of the readers over the soldier’s untimely death, depicting the unjustified nature of war. The young soldier perhaps has not been aware of the hypocrisy of the world like an infant, before he is mercilessly put to death by the bullets shot at him. As the young soldier seems to rest amidst the valley, nature plays the role of an affectionate mother and keeps him warm, sheltering him from the cold.

“His smile / Is like an infant’s”—Whose smile is referred to here? Why is his smile compared with that of an infant? How does nature treat him?

In the above-mentioned line, the smile of a dead young soldier is referred to.

The poet compared the smile of the young soldier with that of an infant because just like an infant, the young soldier too had an innocent and gentle smile without any guile.

Nature took gentle care of the young soldier, lulled him in her lap and protected him from catching a cold. The soldier lay asleep in the warm sunlight peacefully, in the small green valley.

“Ah, Nature, keep him warm; he may catch cold.”—Who is ‘he’? Why may he catch cold? Why does the poet ask Nature to keep him warm?

“The humming insects don’t disturb his rest;”-Who rests and where? What put him to rest? Why can’t the insects disturb his rest?

“He sleeps in sunlight …”-Who is the person referred to here? Where does he sleep and how? What does the word sleep’ indicate in this poem?

“In his side there are two red holes.”-Who is the person referred to here? What do the ‘two red holes’ signify? What attitude of the poet to war is reflected here?

Give a description of the valley as found in Rimbaud’s poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’.

The word “sun’ is repeatedly used in the poem-explain the significance of it.

How does the poet express the futility of war through his poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’? What message does he want to convey?

How does the soldier lie in Asleep in the Valley’?

How does this picture of the soldier describe the tragedy of war? Explain.

Bring out the irony of the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’.

Look at the word ‘asleep’. What do we normally associate with the word? When does the reader recognise that the soldier is asleep in a different sense?

Comment on Rimbaud’s treatment of symbol and imagery in the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’.

Nature plays an important role in the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’ by Arthur Rimbaud- Justify.

The poem ends a little abruptly but leaves the reader with utter surprise and shock Discuss.

The poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’ rests on two contrasting pictures. Discuss the use of two contrasting pictures in the poem,

What is the occasion of the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’? Give a simile used by the poet in the poem. Are there other comparisons in the poem?

Give the substance of Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare.

Discuss the central idea of the poem, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?.