Summary: Small Pain in My Chest by Michael Mack
Small Pain in My Chest by Michael Mack was read over to 5000 people, at the funeral of the first Blackhawk helicopter pilot, who was shot down in Iraq. It is also read at the Vietnam Veterans meetings. The poem shows the pain suffered by the soldiers in a war. It also portrays the human spirits in times of war and crisis.
The summary of the poem Small Pain in My Chest is given below.
Stanza 1:
The narrator comes across a soldier who was sitting under a tree, peacefully. As the narrator walks towards him, the soldier summons him. The narrator sees a number of soldiers lying dead, who had fought a long and difficult battle throughout the night and had died in the battle.
Stanza 2:
The young soldier was smiling at its best to hide his pain and asks the narrator if he could help him. He says he needs a sip of water as he had been fighting all night without rest and is having a small pain in his chest.
Stanza 3:
The narrator finds a large reddish-brown stain of blood on the soldier’s shirt. The stain is a mixture of his blood and the local dirt. The soldier consoles the narrator that his wound is not a big one and he considers himself luckier than his fellow soldiers as they have already died whereas he had survived with only a small pain in his chest.
Stanza 4:
The soldier smiles again and was feeling weak, he says that he is feeling weak because of fatigue and old age. He tells the narrator that though there was sunshine, he was feeling cold. The soldier then describes his experience of the battle which took place at night. He says that he along with a troop of two hundred soldiers was climbing a hill and as they reached the top, there was an explosion and then he felt this small pain in his chest. It seemed that the soldier was injured in the explosion and the pain was of the injury that he went through.
Stanza 5:
The soldier tried to help himself and looked around but he only found big craters in the earth due to explosion and the bodies of dead soldiers all around
The summary of the poem Small Pain in My Chest is given below.
Stanza 1:
The narrator comes across a soldier who was sitting under a tree, peacefully. As the narrator walks towards him, the soldier summons him. The narrator sees a number of soldiers lying dead, who had fought a long and difficult battle throughout the night and had died in the battle.
Stanza 2:
The young soldier was smiling at its best to hide his pain and asks the narrator if he could help him. He says he needs a sip of water as he had been fighting all night without rest and is having a small pain in his chest.
Stanza 3:
The narrator finds a large reddish-brown stain of blood on the soldier’s shirt. The stain is a mixture of his blood and the local dirt. The soldier consoles the narrator that his wound is not a big one and he considers himself luckier than his fellow soldiers as they have already died whereas he had survived with only a small pain in his chest.
Stanza 4:
The soldier smiles again and was feeling weak, he says that he is feeling weak because of fatigue and old age. He tells the narrator that though there was sunshine, he was feeling cold. The soldier then describes his experience of the battle which took place at night. He says that he along with a troop of two hundred soldiers was climbing a hill and as they reached the top, there was an explosion and then he felt this small pain in his chest. It seemed that the soldier was injured in the explosion and the pain was of the injury that he went through.
Stanza 5:
The soldier tried to help himself and looked around but he only found big craters in the earth due to explosion and the bodies of dead soldiers all around