In "An Incident," Mary Tends to a Helpless Christ
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| Depiction of Mary and Christ |
In her
poem “An Incident,” Mary H.J. Henderson views herself as a mother to a helpless
and wounded soldier. I will admit that I could not find information on
Henderson, making me yet again dismayed that the internet clearly lacks
information on World War I poets – particularly female World War I poets. I
assume that the poem was written from the perspective of a nurse because of the
descriptions of a doctor tending to a wounded soldier before the female
narrator begins to care for the soldier. I do not know whether Henderson is writing
the poem from first-hand experience, but the raw observations and descriptions
throughout the poem lead me to believe that it is plausible that Henderson cared
for wounded soldiers.
Henderson
shows that she cares for the injured boy she describes when she says she “felt
the hot tears blur my sight.” Henderson displays great care for the boy, but her
caring goes beyond the role of a nurse. Henderson acts as the boy’s mother when
she feeds him. The boy soldier’s helplessness is shown through his inability to
“hold the spoon or cup.” After being wounded in battle, this boy has reverted
to the helplessness of an infant who needs his mother to care for him. This boy’s
own mother cannot be there to care for him, so Henderson fills this role
because – as she says – “Mary, Mother of
God, / All women tread where thy feet have trod.” In these two lines, Henderson
connects all women, showing that all women play the role of mother and help the
helpless children who simply need to be cared for.
The
role of women as mothers is clear throughout the poem, but the symbolism of women
as mothers is far more complex than a woman caring for a child. The symbolism of mothers continues until the last line of the poem when Henderson says "he stretches out his stricken hand / wounded to death for the Mother Land." Mother Land is one's native country, but the use of the word mother connects the death back to infancy and the idea that mothers care for their children and feel their pain. The use of "Mother Land," makes me think that Henderson is saying the land which bore these boys feels the pain of their deaths just as all women do. While the a caring mother is shown through the way the narrator cares for the wounded soldier, there is also constant religious symbolism in the poem, which clearly depicts the nurse as
Mary, Mother of God, and the soldier as Christ.
Jesus is
proclaimed as the son of man in the Christian faith. In the last stanza of the
poem, Henderson says “each son of man is a son divine, / Not just to the mother
who calls him ‘mine’.” When Henderson says this, she is showing that each soldier
is comparable to Christ and his divinity. These lines make the poem more heartbreaking,
because she shows that she feels as if Christ dies yet again with each soldier
that dies in battle. Think about this for a moment. For Henderson, by the end
of the war, Christ dies 9 million times. Henderson clearly feels the pain of
these deaths. She says that “the Son of God in agony hangs, / Womanhood
striving to ease his pain.” It seems that, every soldier’s death is one felt by
all women, because they feel the need to ease the pain of their children, as
women are the mother of all children just as Mary is the Mother of the Son of
God.
Hi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite poems in Scars! I loved all of the religious symbolism and how the speaker of the poem saw herself as a mother to these wounded soldiers. It reminded me of how officers also saw their soldiers as their sons (specifically the poem written by E.A. Mackintosh in memory of his private). I liked the connection you made between Henderson and her feeling like Christ is dying again as each soldier dies. I didn't initially make that connection, but man is it powerful! If we take into consideration how deeply she felt for these soldiers, enough to see them as her sons, it would be like losing a child 9 million times. I cannot imagine how deep that pain would be. Since there is no information about this incredible poet, I wonder if she did have any children. If she didn't, that almost makes the pain she felt more heartbreaking. She doesn't necessarily have to take on the role of mother because she doesn't have any children but she chooses to anyway. She is choosing to allow herself to feel this pain and that is just absolutely remarkable of her to do.
- Vic
I couldn’t help but be reminded of A War Film while reading the section of your post discussing the role of the nurse as the boy’s mother. Although the nurse in An Incident is not the boy’s true mother, both poems demonstrate the motherly love that seeks to protect their sons from the horrors of the war. This idea led me to researching the role of mothers during the Great War.
ReplyDeleteI found that motherhood served several purposes throughout the war. I learned that mothers raised funds for the war effort while their sons served overseas. In one particular instance, a mother named Hosteen Basa made a blanket for her son who was serving in Europe. She had little hope for his survival and planned to use the blanket for his burial. However, when he returned from the front alive, she donated the blanket to the Red Cross and raised $1,500 in war relief funds.
An interesting role that mothers played in the war was through propaganda. British recruitment posters created images of mothers encouraging their sons to enlist and fight in WWI, because they recognized the power of motherhood and its influence on young men. In London, a recruitment poster was made in 1916 with the image of a mother embracing her son and saying, “Go! It’s your duty lad. Join today.”
https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/mothers-world-war-i#:~:text=Mothers%20raised%20funds%20for%20the%20war%20effort&text=Mothers%20who%20remained%20at%20home,funds%20for%20the%20war%20effort.