“The Casualties” by J. P. Clark is a forty-three-line poem that addresses the human cost and psychological impact of war. The poem is written against the backdrop of the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, which took place from 1967 to 1970. The war, which was primarily fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra, led to tons of deaths of military officers and civilians, and the displacement of many more. The poem portrays the widespread pain and anguish caused by the war, while giving an expansive list of the categories of people affected by the war.
Clark expands the definition of casualties beyond the immediate victims of the war to include anyone touched by it. For him, the casualties are not only those who die but also those who survive with deep emotional and psychological scars. This includes families, friends, and communities who endure the aftermath of loss and displacement.
“The Casualties” brings to life the scenes of destruction and the emotional landscape of the people affected. It emits a sense of futility and despair, as it questions the purpose of the conflict and the price paid by ordinary people.
The consequences of war are far-reaching and often senseless. War has mental and emotional toll on individuals. It changes people and often leaves them haunted by their experiences. These, we shall find out, in the poem.
“The Casualties” is thus a poem that broadens the traditional understanding of war casualties to include not just those who die but also those who suffer psychological, emotional, and societal impacts. The poem is inspired by J. P. Clark’s firsthand experience of the war’s impact, and it is the most popular war poem in his poetry collection, Casualties: Poems 1966-68.
Stanza by Stanza Analysis
“The Casualties” is a poem of forty-three lines, sectioned into three stanzas. The first stanza has seventeen lines. The second stanza has nine lines while the third stanza, which is the last stanza, has seventeen lines. All through the poem, the poet defines the broad categories of the victims of war, by beginning with the expression, “the casualties are not only those who . . .” (lines 1, 3, 5, 9, 12, 15). In this manner, the poet first covers the traditional categories of casualties and the inhumane treatment the war dishes on their plates, before he stretches the definitive reach of the word “casualties” to include a wide range of people it otherwise would have excluded.
Stanza 1 (Lines 1-17)
In this stanza, the poet adumbrates the traditional categories of casualties of war. He is particularly emphatic about the depredation and human degradation they had to face during the war.
The poet begins by challenging the conventional notion of casualties as being people killed during the war: “The casualties are not only those who are dead” (l. 1). He, in a way, suggests that the dead have escaped the ongoing torment left by the war: “They are well out of it” (l. 2). For the poet, the people who died in the war might actually be better off because they don’t have to continue suffering. He again insists the casualties of war are not just the dead, even as their deaths take time for the living to bear and deal with in the aftermath of war: “though they await burial by installment” (l. 4). In other words, these people (the dead and the wounded) are obvious victims, but the poet wants us to think about others too.
Clark extends casualties to include those who have lost loved ones or property. These people experience a profound sense of grief as they struggle to reach out for their loved ones who are no longer there. They struggle with the pain of missing “persons or property” (l. 6) important to them.
In the list of casualties, the poet mentions individuals “led away by night” (l. 9) to evoke the image of abductions and imprisonments rife during war. He then contrasts the relative cruelty of prison with the “absolute(ness)” of “the grave” (l. 11) to show that even imprisonment pales beside the finality of death. Although those who are imprisoned suffer too, the prison is “sometimes a haven” (l. 10) when compared to the dangers outside. Imprisonment is still not as final as death.
The casualties include those who started the war but have lost control of it, that now many innocent people “that had no say in the matter” (l. 14) are suffering because of it. The “thousands . . . burning” (l. 13-14) from the embers of war, recklessly fanned and egged on by others, have been previously referenced in the previous lines. They are the innocent victims caught in the war’s destruction. The poet is however saying those complicit in the starting of the war are casualties too. They had started “a fire” (l. 13) that spiralled out of their control.
Even those trying to escape the war are not spared. They end up trapped in their shattered realities, unable to find true refuge or peace. They go from “shattered shell” (l. 16), which is the war scene, to being imprisoned in “a fortress of falling walls” (l. 17), which can be read as being stuck with the realities of the war, whether in the centre of the conflict or in its periphery, which may include but not restricted to being out of the warzone. The truth is that the war has disrupted the survivor’s realities.
While Clark acknowledges that the casualties of war are not just the dead, people with losses, prisoners of war, those responsible for the war, and war refugees, the poet is, in fact, stating categorically that these people are casualties of the war, though the definitive range of the expression should not be restricted to them in usage.
Stanza 2 (Lines 18-26)
The poem expands to talk about people far from the actual fighting. These include people in other countries who don’t realize how bad things are and those who spread the impact of war to other parts of the world.
The poet criticises these people who, far-removed from the actual conflict, remain oblivious to the devastation, “the scenes of ravage and wreck” (l. 19). These “emissaries of rift” (l. 20), as portrayed in the poem, are politicians, diplomats, academics, and war apologists. They are disconnected from the dire realities on ground and do not really see the real destruction happening at home, “the funeral piles eating up the forests” (l. 22-23), and so they are preoccupied with their own interests, “smug in smoke-rooms they haunt abroad” (l. 21) while their brothers and sisters die in a senseless war back home.
He describes this category of people as “wandering minstrels” (l. 24) who go on “beating on the drums of the human heart” (l. 24-25) to “draw the world into a dance with rites it does not know” (l. 25-26). They manipulate the emotions of the international community and further make the situation worse. As we shall find out in the next stanza, their propaganda can be more powerful and damaging than the actual fighting. It forms the basis of what little the outside world knows about the “rift” (l. 20).
Stanza 3 (Lines 27-43)
The poet begins this stanza by noting that the propaganda (“drums”) peddled by people, who are oblivious of the “scenes of ravage and wreck” (l. 19) and “the funeral piles eating up the forests” (l. 22-23), takes precedence over the actual warfare (“guns”): “The drums overwhelm the guns . . .” (l. 27). In other words, convincing rhetoric and false narratives are purposely spread about, while the debilitating effects of the war are downplayed.
While the warring parties are caught in their tirade of propaganda, “counter claims and charges” (l. 28), the poet notes that everyone, directly or indirectly involved, becomes a casualty of war. The conflict, after all the disparagement, results in a collective downfall: “we fall” (l. 30).
The poet goes on to make a case for his position that we are all casualties of war. He puts it straightly that everyone changes because of the war. They become different people than they were before: “We are characters now other than before the war began” (l. 36-37). Even those not directly fighting are affected by fear, rumours, and the overall instability. They become prejudiced by the things they hear or are fed about the people from the other side, and thus cannot relate with these people without the lens of prejudice they have subconsciously wore. They stop seeing each other as individuals. War makes it hard for the people from the warring parties to communicate and understand each other. It doesn’t matter whether they have a proper grasp of “the extent of wrongs on all sides” (l. 35) or not. Some people even take advantage of the chaos to loot or gain power: “the looters for office and wares” (l. 38-39). This category of people are what Yoruba people call “aríjẹnídimàdàrú,” that is, “people who thrive from chaos.” They live in the perpetual fear that they too can be stripped of the things they’ve acquired from the wanton destruction all around.
Finally, the poet compares everyone affected by the war to kwashiorkor victims. He posits that war “starves” society in many ways. In a way, the actors of war suffer in the same way as malnourished children.
The Big Takeaway
The big takeaway from this analysis of “The Casualties” is that war doesn’t just affect soldiers or people in the war zone. It changes everyone in the society, hurts the economy, breaks down communication, and can even impact people in other countries. Survivors, those who lose their loved ones, those imprisoned, and even those indirectly involved are all deeply affected. Therefore, the poem, while it is written against the backdrop of the Nigerian Civil War, has a universal outlook in its portrayal of the far-reaching consequences of war that go beyond what is typically talked about.
Mood and Tone
The mood of the poem is melancholic. It elicits sadness in its focus on death, loss, and the psychological scars of war.
On the other hand, the tone of the poem is critical, empathetic, and elegiac. The poem critiques the ignorance and complacency of people who “do not see the funeral piles / At home eating up the forests” and those who “beat on / The drums of the human heart” without understanding the true cost of their actions. The poem also shows empathy for the various types of casualties in the poem as it acknowledges their pain, losses, and shattered realities. Finally, it has an elegiac tone, especially in relation to its mourning of the losses and the widespread devastation caused by the war.
Figures of Speech
Some of the figures of speech used in the poem include metaphor, personification, synecdoche, repetition, litotes, hyperbole, and paradox.
Metaphor
“Emissaries of rift” (l. 20) “They are wandering minstrels” (l. 24) “A fortress of falling walls” (l. 17) “The cell is a cruel place, sometimes a haven” (l. 10)
Personification
“The drums overwhelm the guns” (l. 27)
Synecdoche
“Eyes have ceased the face from the crowd” (l. 33)
Repetition
“The casualties are not only those who . . .” is repeated in lines 1, 3, 5, 9, 12, and 15 to emphasise the poet’s expanded definition of casualties and to depict the pervasive nature of suffering caused by war.
Litotes
A good example of litotes in the poem is in line 1, “The casualties are not only those who are dead,” where the poet downplays the severity of death by implying that there are other types of casualties beyond just physical death.
Alliteration
“So smug in smoke-rooms” (l. 21) “Persons or property” (l. 6) “shattered shell” (l. 16) “A fortress of falling walls” (l. 17) “ravage and wreck” (l. 19) “human heart” (l. 25) “Caught in the clash of counter claims” (l. 28)
Paradox
There is an instance of paradox in line 10, “The cell is a cruel place, sometimes a haven,” where there is a portrayal of the duality of imprisonment, which despite being a place of suffering, can also provide a strange form of safety, especially when compared to the finality of the grave or the chaos outside the walls of a prison cell.
Hyperbole
(Lines 13-14) “Thousands Are burning that have no say in the matter.”
Symbolism
There is a good usage of symbols in the poem. In line 13, “fire” is used to symbolise the war itself. Similarly, symbolism is evident in line 27 where “drums” symbolise the power of propaganda and emotional manipulation, while “guns” symbolise the physical warfare. “Drums” is also used in a different sense in line 25 to symbolise the heartbeat.
Read Also:
- Poem: “The Casualties” by John Pepper Clark
- Poem: Abiku by John Pepper Clark
- Content Analysis of John Pepper Clark’s IBADAN
- Critical Analysis of John Pepper Clark’s “The Wives’ Revolt”
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