5. next to of course god america i

"He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water" line 14

This poem was definitely hard for me to comprehend, and I probably still don't have an analysis close to what it is supposed to be. But, I'm going to make an attempt. The quotation in the poem and the last line imply that the speaker is talking directly to an audience. To me, God seems to be the most prominent thing in the speakers life, and America is a close second. He recites a small part of the national anthem as well as praises the nation. This leads me to believe that he is very patriotic. He seems to sarcastically say, "these heroic happy dead," meaning the soldiers and then compares them to "lions rushing into roaring slaughter they did not stop to think they died instead." I think the speaker is criticizing the mindset of the soldiers here. Being so patriotic himself, he thinks everyone should posses that same national pride that he had. He is saying that the soldiers basically went in fighting without knowing what it was they were fighting for. Also, the lack of punctuation really confused me.