Summary Of War Widow By Chris Abani

In the poem War Widow by Chris Abani the majority of the poem spends time talking about being alone and unhappy just like a war widow would. For instance one of the lines in Abani’s poem says “the breath of those you’ve loved; long dead”(Abani 1). This shows that the author may not have lost someone to war, but has maybe lost someone close to him and has the emptiness in him like a war widow. Abani visits topics like these throughout the poem which does explain the title of the poem being War Widow.
One poetic device that is prevalent throughout the entirety of poem is mood. Mood can be described as the general feeling or atmosphere that a piece of writing creates within the reader. One general mood in the poem is depression. With the title of the poem being War Widow it is very easy to see that depression is one general mood in the writing. Another line in the poem says “The telephone never rings. Still you pick it up, smile into the static”(Abani l). This could mean that this person is alone and has no one left to talk to or it can also mean that someone he loved was taken away from him and he has been deeply affected by the loss. These lines have depression in the background of the context. This poem is very deep in the

sense that it is talking about being alone and depressed, like having no one there as if you really were a war widow. It’s like not having that person that you spent so much of your life with and then all of a sudden they are gone.
Another poetic device found in the poem is tone.

Tone can be described as the speaker or narrator’s attitude toward the subject. In order to make any novel or poem work tone needs to be added from the speaker to add depth to it and to give the reader a sense of what the speaker is feeling. The speaker’s tone towards this subject is very unhappy and sad. He talks in the poem about never forgetting the joy that he had long ago, but then waking up a certain morning and getting a letter. Getting a letter and feeling your mood just go from happy to unhappy usually means that someone has died typically in the armed forces. But it could also mean that he has lost someone just in general and that a letter was sent to him explaining the sudden

loss.
A third poetic device in the poem War Widow is theme. Theme can be described as the main idea or underlying meaning of a literary work. One of the themes from war widow could be moving on from a death of a loved one. This can be proved by a few of the lines and word choices from Abani. In the fifth stanza Abani uses the words victory and epic which can be seen as confusing when the majority of the poem is an unhappy monologue of a widow who lost a loved one. The word victory in the poem can be defined or seen as the small victory or triumph over the depression that has brought havoc to their life which also signals that the widow is beginning to move on. The word epic in the poem can be defined as the faith that is carried with the speaker that the loved one will be able to move on without them. Moving on especially after the death of a loved one is certainly hard, but it is not impossible to do. In the fourth stanza the speaker uses the words “like an old flagellant able only to tease with a weak sting”(Abani 4). This use of the word flagellant with the rest of what this line says implies that the widow is whipping themselves out whatever emotion they are feeling whether it be sadness, anger, or grief.
As the poem nears an end the small victory and the epic the speaker feels can be seen as the poem becoming happier and more uplifting as the widow tries to move forward with their life. Being a widow is not easy especially when it is someone that you love and were very close to. The Poem War Widow does a very good job at explaining the emotional and physical grief that everyone goes through when a loved one is lost. Chris Abani truly is a good poet when it comes to his works and making it relate to people and how they feel at different points in their lives.