The Bough of Nonsense

Robert Grave’s poem, The Bough of Nonsense is a hard hitting satire that condemns a senseless war that sends young men to their graves. Graves, as a member of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, participated in some of the most brutal battles of the war, including the Battle of Loos, in which his friend Charles Sorley was killed, in the brutality of trench warfare. Graves, found it hard to come to terms with the war experience that left him battered both physically and mentally, and it was this battle with his own demons that lasted some twenty years that reflects in his poetic style.

Graves uses rhyming ABABCC and various literary devices such as allusions, diction, religious symbolism and imagery and metaphors to bring his real life experiences and feelings to life. The poem is an idyll, which is a short poem of rustic life or pastoral scene. Graves, uses R and S to denote the dialogue between two soldiers returning home from the battle of Somme two Fusiliers, in France. R may be Robert himself and his fellow elder soldier, S could be, Sorley.

The poem starts with the diction “Limped painfully home,” (2) which instantly allows the reader to know that the duo are battle weary. This is further enforced with “I’ve lived three thousand years,” (3) showing that the soldier figuratively feels that he has been on this earth that long despite his young age as he has seen things that take many lifetimes to see and his weariness makes him feel very, very old. The soldier though thankfully alive from a bitter battle rather than being grateful feels like he is the walking dead and in a zombie life state. The use of the metaphor, “nine parts dead,” (4) may come from the simple comparison of a cat who has lost all nine lives but also could be from the Egyptian belief that a soul has 9 parts not all of which die allowing him to reach immortality. The soldier thinks there is no part of him living and has given up on life and can find no joy in his homecoming. The “bough” (6) which is literally the main branch of a tree may be a clever metaphor for a branch of a religion they worship that is war. Ironically, a tree ,signifies life and hope which is the opposite of war.

The second stanza uses the diction “nonsense,” which may be an euphemism for war which Graves feels is nonsensical. This is repeated in the title and again in stanza 3, 4 and 5. Graves may be trying to show that Christianity condemns killing as a sin, as the Bible says, “ thou shalt not kill,” but the new age leaders of that time are going against this principle and creating a religion that glorifies and rewards killing with medals. This stanza uses diction to show the birth of this new religion on the bough which gives birth on a “nest,” (7) made of skulls and flowers. Birth should bring life but in this case we are reminded of a funeral in its imagery. The “Hatching three eggs” (10) may be a religious symbol for the Holy Trinity, (the father, the son and the holy ghost), which is the basis of Christianity, and “Foaled thirteen squamous young” refers to Jesus and the 12 disciples. However, in this case instead of love and purity the diction “squamous” means scales which gives an imagery of the devil controlled snakes in the garden of Eden. It is interesting that this new God is referred to she who now rids his country of the old religion. The diction, “drink, melancholy, and psalms” (12) has religious symbolism and connotations of holy communion.

The third stanza, has the soldiers wishing to compose a new hymn to hang on the tree for this new religion, but in doing so they use diction of an exotic nature that gives an imagery of a lush jungle with “ monkey tails” (15), and “ banana trees” (17), when in fact they are in France going to Britain. This could show that the new religion has no discipline and is jungle like or animalistic where human values have been forgone. It was known as depicted by Hemingway that post WW1 people often abandoned their morals for a more care free life leading to the term, ‘ the lost generation’.

The fourth stanza pleads to abandon this new religion, “nonsense” (19). Here strong diction are used with religious undertones where they lament that people are hardened and bitter, with “old quince and lime,” (20) which are tart fruit again borne of a tree, have lost old fashioned values. The metaphor of building a “temple with no floor,” (21) and “disappears from sight and leaves no trace,” shows that people now worship war and lose their code and honor and morality and die literally without a trace (death on the battle field of the unknown, un-named soldier) or the death of decency figuratively.

The fifth stanza, uses the allusion of the “Galatians built a fane” which again expands on temple building and refers to the 9th book of the New Testament and the 4 letters of the disciple Paul who pleads to accept Christianity as the new faith. During World War 1 people are not listening to the preaching of Paul and have rejected Christianity, which crumbles in “Autumn rain”, ( 26) diction for the time period that precedes death or end, that is Winter). The “ roof fell in and crushed them flat” shows death of the Church because though the logic of Christianity is positive it cannot survive if the “ nonsense is foundation for the walls,” (30) uses metaphors that show the war or nonsense is more powerful than religion and has caused its destruction to rubble.

The last stanza, uses metaphors, “ phantom creatures with green scales” (33) which conjures up the imagery of evil snakes slithering among the trees where the new religion was born. A phantom is a ghost like un human being which again this reinforces a loss of values which has given vent to sin and life going on where the soul is dead. Graves continues to remind us of the newly composed hymn which sings in the tree above them giving religious symbolism. The last line “bright pink birds, flapping their wings” (36) on this bough is difficult to interpret. Bright pink birds are usually flamingoes or crossbills that give an exotic heavenly image of paradise. This could signify that the soldiers are the snakes in a living hell who have fallen from grace and are unable to reach up to heaven that eludes them. Perhaps in their weary state they feel abandoned by God himself.

Graves cuts a graphic image of the spoils of war and gives a powerful hard hitting message that war is nonsense and we need to return to our values that war has robbed us of.