At the start of the poem, we are introduced to a description of a disabled man sitting contemplating his life. The quote “Legless, sewn short at elbow” shows that he has lost both his arms and legs, presumably from the war. The words ‘sewn short’ shows that he was not only affected physically …show more content…
The soldier searches for a reason why he joined the war and he reveals “to please his Meg, Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts” shows that he joined the war just to make his friends admire him, and to show his girlfriend just how manly he is, but now he does not have any friends or family, because all of them are either unaware that he still exists or are probably dead. Furthermore at that time he did not feel any fear, the thought of death or worse never crossed his mind, all he was thinking of was being called a hero and wearing fancy war clothes whilst bearing weapons. When he asked to join the war recruiters did not care that he did not meet the minimum age requirement because they needed soldiers, they wanted him to join too, so he went to war with no idea of what he was fighting