The Field Mouse Poem Analysis

Bloody, blanketed battlefields. Twisted corpses, rotting in the scorching day’s sun. War brings out the horrifying and gratuitous violence in humanity. For centuries we have been fighting against our own kind and for what purpose? War. What is it good for? ‘Absolutely nothing’ according to soul singer Edwin Starr.
Even today, turn on the TV any day of the week and we will be confronted by horrifying images straight out of a horror movie. Severed heads being carried by children. Innocent people slaughtered. How can we combat this all persuasive violence that seems to be part of our human race? Poets have found the answer. Poetry exposes the harsh realities and brutality of today’s society. Poetry provides the reader with a disturbing and twisted
‘The Field Mouse’ by Jillian Clarke, reveals innocent children stuck in the midst of the Bosnian War in 1992. The war is seen to have been the worst act of genocide since The Second World War. An effective extended metaphor is created through disturbing and sickening imagery throughout the never-ending massacre, to show the pain and suffering of the children caught in the center of the murder scene. A distraught and powerless mouse is exemplified as it ‘curls in agony as big as itself.’ Clarke’s metaphor allows us to relate to the battlefield in a way that we understand and feel empathy for the innocent children. The stressing pain of a whole country as ‘the star goes out in its eye,’ resembles an aching and distressed mouse (child), invaded and drawn out from its home only to be slaughtered in the ruins of it. ‘Before the days done, the field lies bleeding.’ The unimaginable horror displayed through powerful imagery makes us feel sorry for sorry for the mouse because of all of its pain and suffering. The farm/battlefield is used as a basis of the grounds to commit a perfect murder scene. Through the use of personal pronouns in the final stanza such as ‘my neighbor, my land, we can’t face the newspapers,’ Clarke is able to change the viewpoint and make the final line more direct and engaging. This allows the poem to become more personal towards us. The poem portrays many techniques to make us feel empathetic towards the innocent children associated and reveal the gratuitous violence depicted in the human