Analyzing Ernest M. Hemingway's "Champs d'Honneur"

"Champs d'Honneur" by Ernest M. Hemingway

Soldiers never do die well;

         Crosses mark the places—

Wooden crosses where they fell,

         Stuck above their faces.

Soldiers pitch and cough and twitch—

         All the world roars red and black;

Soldiers smother in a ditch,

         Choking through the whole attack.

    With this poem, Hemingway is able to properly portray the true tragedy of war—the potential benefits war would bring to a nation does not justify the physical and psychological damage done to human life during that time. The horror and suffering soldiers face while in combat, including those who are just caught in the crossfire, is unimaginable. Those who survive are scarred for life, and those who don't face a terrible death. The title of the poem translates from French into Fields of Honor, and the details Hemingway chose to include in his writing show the irony of this title—what honor is there in dying, scared and afraid, while fighting someone else's war? Why sacrifice your life for something so brutal like war? Hemingway even references this poem directly to the World War I gas attacks. This explains what he means by, "Soldiers pitch and cough and twitch—", assuming that they were just bombarded with gas canisters, causing them to "[choke] through the whole attack." Hemingway's portrayal of the terror soldiers face moments before dying, which he does within the span of only a few lines, make "Champs d'Honneur" one of his greatest war poems of all time.