Captives Ernest Hemmingway

Captives by Ernest Hemingway 

Some came in chains

Unrepentant but tired.

Too tired but to stumble.

Thinking and hating were finished

Thinking and fighting were finished

Retreating and hoping were finished.

Cures thus a long campaign,

Making death easy.

The poem uses only few to reflect Hemingway's minimalist writing style, as his brief powerful statements make up a bulk of his writing. The poem shows how few words it takes to describe a truly powerful story. Captives provides a inside look on the life and death of a prisoner of war. Hemingway uses repetition to asses the main point of death and the concept of the end, and the usage of periods are to slow down readers, and allow the reader to mentally assess main points. This eight lined poem reflects on a prisoners struggle within war and survival regardless of the immeasurable physical and mental torture. The prisoners were arriving in different methods from different places. They were all intensely tied and had to stumble around, and they believed their lives were finished. They believed the horrors they had witness were going the end with their death. They were so tired that they encouraged death and, they wanted to die, as they saw death as easy way out. This poem reflects the ideas possessed by Hemingway regarding his motives for ending his own life, because this poem reflects on his struggle with alcoholism. His addiction had gotten so bad, and he didn't even reflect the values of self-control and productivity. The idea of his work being done was a good summery of how he felt he had served his purpose on earth and he would rather make death easy than struggle onward. The sharp words emphasize the concept of the end the truth in the permanent nature of death. The tone is seemingly dark and desensitized by the horrors of war and the product of true suffering.

Work Cited:

Wood, Michael. “Hemingway Poem: Captives.” Ernest Hemingway, 13 Sept. 2010, sunalsorises.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/hemingway-poem-captives/.