Why does the poem “Naming of Parts” contrast war with nature?

Answer 1

Henry Reed projects two speakers with the main poetic device of imagery and wordplay to cater the connotative meaning. The world of war and the world of nature is juxtaposed with the imagery of Japonica plant shining like a coral and the rifle imagery in the first stanza. The imagery of missing ‘piling swivel’ is contrasted with the imagery of tree branches that hold the trees in an eloquent manner and in great silence. The ‘easing the spring’, ‘assaulting and fumbling the flowers’, ‘rapidly forward and backward’, imagery figuratively suggest the sexual connotations. The bees are shown as the active predators and the flowers as the passive victim in the nature and they are suggested as the sexual symbols.Reed is against the war that can be vividly seen in this poem when he shows the second speaker who is not concerned with the war and the instructions given by the senior. Despite the beautiful season of birth and renewal, the spring season, the soldiers are forced to unproductive act of war. The flower Japonica is noteworthy here as it is primarily found in Japan, one of the powerful enemy of England, and its presence in the war scene shows that nature transcends political and natural boundaries.