https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=19X9wy9OPTA Asleep In The Valley

1. Comment on the use of imagery in the poem Asleep In The Valley by Arthur Rimbaud.

Ans: To intensify the pity of war Arthur Rimbaud presents the beauty of the valley in contrast to
the tragic end of a soldiers life. He describes the minute details of the bosky valley with almost
photographic exacititude. It is a small green valley where a slow stream is flowing slowly touching
the silver-rags of itself on the grass on its two sides. The rivulet looks like a long strand of silver on
the bright green grass. The sun is shining from the mountaintop and the valley is brimming with
light. A soldier lies open-mouthed othere stretching his body on the warm green sun-soaked
bed(sod) of the valley. Though he looks pale, there is an innicent smile on his face. A bunch of fear
below his head acts like a make-shift pillow. His body rests on a heavy undergrowth of weeds and
his legs are stretched among tiny wild flowers. The buzzing of insects does not disturb his rest as he
is lying on ground peacefully in his eternal sleep, never to rise again with one hand on his breast.
Thus an exquisite natural landscape is drawn with the brust of poetry in this poem by Rimbaud.

2. What attitude of the poet is revealed againist warfare in Asleep In The Valley ?

Ans: In Asleep In The Valley Jean Nicholas Arthur Rimbaud raises his protest againist
warfare in a vehement manner. He begins by giving the picturesque details of a beautiful valley
[which is overflooded with greenary and where a slow stream is flowing at its sweet wild amidst]
bright with sun-shine and a silvery stream among the lush green grwoth of wild plants. Amid this
abundance of nature lies the young and innicent soldier, shot dead by two bullets a totally
contrasting picture , set to evoke our sympathy. He is a victim of modern warfare. His pale face
implies the pain that he had to suffer in battlefield. With this guileless soldier, nipped in the bud
,Rimbaud upholds the grim reality and merciles butchery of promising youth in the warfare
unveiling the deceitful hypocrisy of warmongers. The tragic demise of the unnamed soldier appends
a universal significance to the poem as well.

3. Justify the title of the poem Asleep In The Valley.

Ans: The title of the poem Asleep In The Valley rather bears an ironical tone ,underlying in it.
The poem tells the tragic demisew of an unnamed soldier who is asleep in a green valley never to
be awaken again. We the readers ,mistakes him for a sleeping soldier until we reach the concluding
line of the sestet. Although the initial tranquil atmosphere of the poem gives way to the forboding
one ,in the middle ,by the use of such words as open-mouthed, pale, cold, etc ,the radical shock
at the end ,however was unexpected. There was never the slightest hint that something horrible
awaitung us in the otherwise picture-perfect setting. The poet was perhaps trying to balance this
final shock which is marked by two red holes on the side of his body. Thus the implication of the
word asleep gets finally clear. In this ironical sense the title of the poem is quite justified.
 4. Discuss the two contrasting images in Asleep In The Valley .

Ans: Asleep In The Valley by Arthur Rimbaud rest on two contrasting pictures. The unfoiling
beauty of the living valley is set in contrast with two red holes in one side of the body that signifies
the death of the soldier.

The poem opens with a picture of a small valley brimming over with bright sunlight. A small stram
like strand of silver is flowing slowly. Here and there ,were beautiful flowers among the verdure of
sod and wild growth. The continuous humming by a variety of insects filled the air of the valle with
a musicaleffect.In this tranquil atmosphere the soldier is supposed to be resting, his weary limbs
and enjoying his deep slumber. But this peaceful ambience is shuddered by two deadly shots in the
side of his body. This at once evokes a sense of horror and pty conceiving the hapless condition of a
soldier in a warfront and inevitability of his death without any reason.

5. Discuss he structure and form of the poem Asleep In The Valley.

Ans: Rimbaud is a master artist to write his poetry following many traditional and self-invented
forms. The present poem Asleep In The Valley is composed in a sonnet form but it is not written
following Petrarchan form of writing sonnet. A Petrarchan sonnet is made of an octave (consisting 8
lines) and a sestet (consisting 6 lines). In this poem Rimbaud divided the octave into two
quatrains(each consisting of 4 lines) following the rhyme scheme abcb defe. Again his sestet is
divided into two tarcets(each consisting of 3 lines) followin the rhyme scheme aab ccd. The first
stanza depicts the beauty of the bosky hollow whule the second stanza shows the soldier asleep on
sun-soaked bed of the valley. Again the third stanza dwells on how nature mother takes care of the
sleeping soldier and the concluding stanza reveals the shocking fact that th soldier is not asleep but
a casuality of war. Thus the sonnet prove to be made of a well conceived structure with a balanced
form.