Randall Jarrell - Losses

        I really enjoyed reading the poem “Losses” by Randall Jarrell.  I had to read this poem several times before I actually got the meaning of it.  I think that the poem is talking about the inevitably of loss and the nonsense of war.  It seems as though there are invisible tears sprinkled on the pages in which this poem was written on.  We cannot resolve the tragic and needless loss of life.  During wars, lives are basically sacrificed for nothing.  The soldiers don’t get a ribbon or medal for the courageous work that they do.  This poem leaves us to think about the craziness of political power and the price for it.  The rough rhyme scheme ridicules this uncertainty just like the awfully ordinary and separated acts of killings.  These acts are practiced on inhuman “targets” till boredom and then carried out against “targets” not people, over “cities” who ask questions, not the people.  They say that it’s “war” not murder.  This is how war is justified so that it makes it all OK.  “Acts” of war aren’t really “acts.”  There is no “acting” in war, it is very real.  Real people have died for “acts” of war.  Nothing is in our control.  Let this poem really sink in, let it filter through you.  This poem makes me feel depressed and remote.  The subject in this poem is on young men going away to fight in the war.  I believe that the theme in this poem is death.  The deaths in the poem are only viewed as statistics which we read about in books and see on TV. This particular death in the poem was too quick and too simple, it was a life of hopes and dreams wasted.  This poem questions the meaning of life and the reason for war.  There are some people in the world who want to die and commit suicide, just giving away their life.  The men know that they are going to die but they do not want to.  Going to war is all a big risk and then suddenly a mistake is made, and a life is all gone.  These young men may die for a cause but in the end what was the point in it.