I chose this poem because the rat captivated me. It sounds silly, I know. But I was fascinated in the comparison and contrast that Rosenberg draws between this rat and the poem’s narrator, a soldier. Humans often like to think that we are superior animals, more intelligent, more free than other creatures, especially vermin like rats. With this poem Rosenberg proposes that the opposite is actually true, at least in war. The soldier and his fellow men are strong and beautiful (“Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes”), but they’re stuck in routine (“The same old druid time as ever”), chained to murder and death, and above all, terrified (“What do you see in our eyes… What quaver—what heart aghast?”). The rat, on the other hand, is elevated above these men with the freedom of a being not constrained to human orders. It can go anywhere it wishes, and even seems to mock the narrator (“sardonic… you inwardly grin”). It’s a lofty observer, passing through the way of those chained to nature and fate, without a care. We’ve seen soldiers compared to animals throughout the literature read in this class, but Rosenberg is also concerned with the animals themselves. Soldiers are animals, and the animal is more like a man. This class has given me a lot to think about regarding humanity in war. What makes one human, when they become a force for death and destruction?
Luca’s Reading of Rosenberg’s “Break of Day in the Trenches”
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