There is no hope of resurrection in the death of the soldier in his poem. Compared to the image of the soldier who joins the army to help protecting his country against the evil, acclaimed after his death, brought out of anonymity, honored by his country and admired internationally, when chosen as a hero of a story by a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner, the soldier in the poem dies alone and calls for no parade. His death has no significance and it does not contribute to anything. No one benefits from it, no one cares. War is thus seen as a useless action causing losses like this that serve for nothing.
Wallace Stevens did not write about the glory of the past and the courage, the way Faulkner did. William Faulkner felt that the problems of the human heart, the capabilities of the human spirit were the only thing worth writing about. Two Soldiers" is a patriotic short story in which a child narrates about loyalty and endurance through war. It is a story about courage and selflessness, about the close connection between the simple elements of rural life, such as farm labor and familial love, and the patriotism for a vast America that appreciation of these simplicities helps to foster.
Faulkner meditates on the mysterious "inspiration" that drives men to fight...
The narrator that Faulkner creates begins to understand the importance of this connection, and begins to develop such patriotism. It is a story about pride, about patriotic feelings and about sacrifice. War is no longer useless; it becomes a duty with a sordid reward: glorious death.
So, there they are two different points-of-view about death on the altar of your country. Steven Wallace puts it into an image of a natural process which misses the its natural cause and is thus emptied by its meaning and Faulkner glorifies it and makes it a heroic gesture admired and honored by the whole world.
Bibliography
Longenbach, James, Wallace Stevens. The Plain Sense of Things.New York: Oxford UP, 1991, 69-70.
The Clairvoyant Eye: The Poetry and Poetics of Wallace Stevens. Louisiana State University Press.1985. 26 Sep 2006. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/stevens/soldier.htm
Padgett, John B. "William Faulkner: Frequently Asked Questions. William Faulkner on the Web. 17 August 2006. 26 Sep 2006 http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/wf-faq.html.
Stevens, Wallace. The Death of a Soldier" Online text © 1998-2006 Poetry X.26 Sep
http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/5331
