Louse Hunting
Louse HuntingIn Isaac Rosenberg’s poem “Louse Hunting,” a motley collection of World War I soldiers rise from their beds one night to wage battle-against the insects that dwell on their persons and in their uniforms. After months of serving on the front lines, living and fighting in the squalor of the trenches, these men have become infested with lice. How do the meanings of the words in the phrase “verminous brood” (line 11) demonstrate how head lice endangered the psyches of these combatants?
In Isaac Rosenberg’s poem “Louse Hunting,” he describes a battle being fought by each individual soldier, not on the battlefield, but on the their own bodies. The enemy was head lice and there was no way of stopping them. After months of being on the front lines the soldiers found themselves infested with vermin that nearly drove them mad. The poem itself has a slight comical tone, but at the same time a sense of despair and a much deeper meaning. In the trenches the soldiers had security and had a stronger sense of control, but outside of the trenches they didn’t have any control. The lice symbolized this. Each individual soldier was small and insignificant in comparison with the war, but together they were strong. One insect didn’t make an impact but eventually the soldiers became infested by the lice and had no control or ability to stop them. Rosenberg’s diction and connotation strongly influenced how head lice was a threat to the mentally of the soldiers. One of the phrases he uses to describe the lice is “verminous brood.”
The word verminous is defined as of or with vermin, being infested with vermin. The lice used the soldiers as their breeding place and eventually became strong in numbers. Instead of an external war, the soldiers were fighting a war within the trenches against the lice. The lice endangered the psyches of these men and caused them to lose them military bearing. Rosenberg described the men running around, stripping of their clothes, and lighting them on fire. Because they were already physically, mentally and emotionally distraught the lice had a strong impact on their...
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