war horse

"This dry night, nothing unusual / About the clip, clop, casual"

Explanation: Boland sets an indifferent, deceptively calm scene, depicting the horse’s approach as ordinary and uneventful.
Theme [Themes: Violence, Fear, Apathy]: Boland’s auditory imagery ("clip, clop") subtly implies a creeping intrusion, a rhythmic, seemingly innocent sound disguising a deeper threat. Her casual tone mirrors society’s apathy towards small, incremental acts of violence, suggesting complicity through silence and inaction.
Personal Response: The casual, repetitive sound of the hooves unnerves me, compelling reflection on how easily violence is normalised by everyday apathy—I feel implicated in this passive acceptance.

"Iron of his shoes as he stamps death / Like a mint on the innocent coinage of earth."

Explanation: The horse’s iron shoes violently imprint death onto the ground, likened to a mint stamping metal coins—leaving a permanent mark.
Theme: The metaphor "stamps death" combined with the simile of "a mint on the innocent coinage of earth" conveys aggression, permanence, and violation.

the word "stamps" emphasises deliberate force, indicating that violence leaves permanent scars, forcibly imprinting itself into society
Personal Response: The brutality suggested by "stamping death" deeply disturbs me; it evokes a recognition that violence never just passes by but permanently marks what it touches.

"Only a leaf of our laurel hedge is torn— / Of distant interest like a maimed limb."

Explanation: Boland compares minor damage—a torn leaf—to the brutal imagery of bodily mutilation.
Theme [Themes: Violence, Indifference, Collective Memory]: The disturbing simile of the "maimed limb" deliberately exaggerates minor damage, confronting readers with their own indifference to violence. Boland implies that dismissing minor destruction perpetuates a cycle of apathy towards greater, unseen suffering.
Personal Response: This comparison is unsettling yet convicting, it makes me question how often I downplay violence simply because it seems distan.

"He stumbles on like a rumour of war, huge / Threatening."

Explanation: The horse’s presence is compared to a vague yet imposing threat, a "rumour of war," indicating tension and uncertainty.
Theme [Themes: Fear, Historical Trauma, Lingering Violence]: Through the ominous simile, Boland implies how historical violence persists as an intangible yet ever-present threat beneath ordinary life. The phrase "rumour of war" evokes auditory and psychological imagery, suggesting how conflict quietly yet menacingly lingers, generating an atmosphere of unease.
Personal Response: I feel a persistent sense of dread reading this—it reminds me how easily peace can be overshadowed by historical fears that refuse to be silenced.

"Neighbours use the subterfuge / Of curtains."

Explanation: Neighbours conceal themselves behind curtains, deliberately ignoring the presence of danger outside.
Theme [Themes: Apathy, Fear, Suburban Security]: the word —"subterfuge"—suggests conscious avoidance, emphasising how fear prompts intentional blindness. The visual imagery of drawn curtains symbolises collective denial, highlighting how communities often prioritise comfort over confronting violence.
Personal Response: This image leaves me feeling uncomfortable—it forces me to consider how willingly people, including myself, ignore uncomfortable truths for the illusion of security.

"That rose he smashed frays / Ribboned across our hedge, recalling days / Of burned countryside, illicit braid: / A cause ruined before, a world betrayed."

Explanation: The damaged rose evokes historical images of destruction, referencing political betrayals and ruined landscapes.

Theme [Themes: Historical Violence, Betrayal, Fragility of Peace]: Boland uses vivid visual and tactile imagery (("smashed," "frays," "ribboned") alongside historical "burned countryside," "a cause ruined") allusion, to portray how the trauma of past political violence, continues to haunt the present. The rose, often a symbol of peace or love, becomes a metaphor for that peace violently undone. The tone of betrayal is unmistakable: the violence that claimed to protect a cause ultimately destroyed it, and the world it was meant to defend.

Personal Response: This closing image leaves me with a hollow sorrow—Boland’s ruined rose captures the way political violence not only scars history but quietly corrodes hope. It makes me reflect on how peace, once shattered, rarely feels whole again.