(Q.1) Justify the title of the poem, “Asleep In The Valley”? [ 2015 ]
Ans. Arthur Rimbaud’s “Asleep in The Valley” is a fine poem. When we go through the poem, we come to know about a young soldier. He is sleeping on the bed of soft green grass in the lap of loving nature. He has a child like smiling face and is undisturbed by the humming insects. But the real shock comes at the very ending line. There are two bullet wounds in the side of the soldier. He is dead. The title suggests that the soldier is asleep. But he will wake up no more. He is sleeping eternal sleep. So the title is ironical.
(Q:2) “The humming insects don’t disturb his rest”—who rests and where? What makes him to rest? Why can’t the insects disturb his rest?[2020]
Ans. A young soldier in “Asleep in The Valley” rests in the green valley on soft green grass with a pillow of fern.
>There are two red holes in the side of the soldier. Here two red holes suggest two bullet wounds which have caused his death. That makes him to rest.
>The soldier was sleeping on the soft green valley. There are fresh and beautiful flowers under his feet. But actually the soldier is not sleeping. He is brutally dead in the battlefield. He will never wake up again. So, the humming insects can not disturb his rest.
(Q.3) Write down the central idea /theme of the poem, “Asleep in The Valley”?
OR, Write critical analysis of the poem, “Asleep in The Valley”?
Ans. The poem, “Asleep in The Valley” by Arthur Rimbaud presents a lovely natural scene. The poem introduces thereafter, a young soldier who is lying dead in a green valley hit by two bloody bullet shots. He is poor victim of war. He looks all innocent and pure, gentle and without guile. The soldier, lying dead in the valley symbolizes for the thousands of young men who trapped and killed in the war. Thus, the theme of the poem is truck here which is all of the futility of war.
(Q: 4) 1)His smiles/ Is like an infant's............" - Whose 'smile' is referred to here? Why is his smile compared to the smile of an infant? (OR. Explain the comparison in the given line.) How does nature take care of him? [1+3+2 = 6] [H.S. - 2019, 2022]
Ans. The smile of the young soldier in Arthur Rimbaud's poem 'Asleep in the valley' is referred to here.
The smile of the soldier is compared to an infant because the smile was innocent, pure, gentle, and without guile. The soldier was very young. When he was sleeping, the smiling face of him made the poet very affectionate toward him and uttered such words. It shows the poet's pity for the young soldier.
Nature takes the utmost care of his rest. The pillow made of fern under his head gives him comfort. The green sun-soaked undergrowth serves as a soft bed. Sunrays from mountain tops keep him warm.
(Q:5) "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 about war is referred to here? [ 2017, 2022]
Ans. The person referred to here is the dead soldier of the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’ written by Arthur Rimbaud.
The ‘two red holes’ are the marks of bullet wounds, in one side of the apparently sleeping soldier. It signifies that the soldier has been shot to death at war.
The poet here perceives war as something futile and brutal. Rimbaud, being a soldier himself, has witnessed the horrors of war, and in this line he expresses how pitiful a war is! War destroys the lives of youths with all their dreams unfulfilled and without letting them experience the joys of life. In warfare, they become the inevitable ناگزیر victims who are mercilessly killed in the war. This meaninglessness of war perturbsپریشان کرنا the poet immensely بے حد. The concluding line of the poem is an alert to mankind against the ravagesتباہی of war.
(Q:6) How does the poet express the futility of war through the poem 'Asleep in the Valley'? What message does he want to convey? [2018]*
Ans. Arthur Rimbaud's poem, "Asleep in the Valley" is a war poem. It deals with the futility of war.It is not pro- war but anti-war because a war only destroys beautiful things of nature .A soldier lying asleep in the valley is asleep forever. The young soldier lost his life in war. A soldier is an asset of a country. His young flesh is pierced by two bullets. War claims him. Which nation he belongs to is not important. He has no name. He has no identity. He is a cannon-fodder. This is what exactly war does.He saves the country by sacrificing his life. As war can't give life, it is futile. It has no value. Where there is no life, there is futility only. The poem brings in all the pity of war-the futility of war. So the poet Rimbaud says that there is no glory in war. An untimely death can never be a glory.
The poem gives us a message. We should not be engaged in warfare since it creates hollowness of lives by causing death and destruction on a gigantic scale.
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