Stick Soldiers

I enjoyed reading “The Stick Soldiers” because of the way it incorporated the perspective of the American children and Iraqi children’s drawings. The way Hugh Martin describes the Iraqi drawing is pretty impactful: “…an RPG aimed toward the Humvee, the waving soldier’s head—what the children want for Christmas, or what they just want” (18).  This poem looks at the experience of war through the eyes of the Iraqi children, which few poets focus on in their poems.  I also enjoyed reading the poem “Four-Letter Word.” The constant repetition in this poem works well with the theme of going to Iraq. I had started reading the poem silently, but because of the constant repetition it was easier to read out loud. When I read the poem out loud the poem seemed to flow. “Four-Letter Word” shows the reader the way Martin felt prior to leaving to Iraq. Everywhere he turned people were constantly bombarding him with questions and comments about his future trip to Iraq. The quote at the beginning of the poem: “I don’t want to hear that fuckin’ four letter word,” reflects how Martin might have felt after constantly hearing the four letter word, Iraq. Martin’s representation and experience of war differ from other works we have read because Martin not only reflects on his experiences during war, but he also looks at the people that surround him. In the poems we were assigned to read, we see the experiences of Martin, his fellow soldiers, and civilians that cross paths with the soldiers. We see the way Martin interacts with soldiers during their training as well as when they reach Iraq. The civilians are portrayed through the children that draw pictures and run errands as well as the townspeople, who provided food for the soldiers at one point. Overall, we see Martin writing about all his experiences not just combat and its psychological repercussions.