Symbolism in Winston Churchill's Poem "The Influenza"
This paper analyzes the use of symbolism in Winston Churchill's poem "The Influenza," written in 1890 when Churchill was fifteen years old and a student at school. The analysis examines how Churchill employs both conventional and unconventional symbolic associations — including the sun, adverse winds, geographical locations such as Siberia and France, and mythological figures like Father Neptune — to convey the inevitability, indiscriminate nature, and near-unconquerable force of the influenza disease. The paper also considers how Churchill's personification of the illness as a "cruel, unconquerable foe" reinforces its inhuman and non-discriminatory character, and how the poem takes on an almost prophetic quality in light of later influenza outbreaks.
- Introduction: Context for the poem and its symbolism
- Nature Symbols and the Sun: Sun, wind, and rain as inverted symbols
- Geographical Symbolism: Siberia and France: Place names contrasting gloom and merriment
- Personification of the Disease: Disease portrayed as inhuman, unconquerable foe
- Father Neptune and Supernatural Intervention: Sea god as the disease's only true barrier
- Conclusion: Poem's prophetic resonance with later outbreaks
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper moves systematically through the poem's imagery, treating each major symbol in turn and explaining both its conventional meaning and the new or inverted meaning Churchill assigns to it.
- Each analytical claim is anchored to specific words or phrases quoted from the poem, keeping the argument grounded in close reading rather than vague generalization.
- The conclusion extends the analysis beyond the poem itself by connecting Churchill's imagery to a historical event, giving the literary discussion broader significance.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative symbolism analysis: for each image, the writer first establishes what the symbol ordinarily means in conventional usage, then explains how Churchill's context shifts or inverts that meaning. This two-step move — "normally X means this; here it means that" — is an efficient and persuasive close-reading strategy that is especially useful in poetry analysis essays.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a brief contextual introduction situating the poem within 19th-century literary conventions and biographical facts about Churchill. Each subsequent body paragraph isolates one symbolic cluster (the sun and weather, geographic locations, the disease's personification, and the Neptune figure) and builds a unified interpretive argument about the disease's inevitability and inhuman nature. The conclusion ties the poem's themes to historical reality, ending on a note that elevates the poem's significance.
Introduction
In 19th-century literature, symbolism was generally used in one of two ways: it could either draw upon its established meaning in the collective social mind, or it could be used in a new sense revealed by the work itself (W.W. Norton & Company). In Winston Churchill's poem "The Influenza," several words and phrases are used in either the conventional symbolic sense or in a fresh way that is shaped by the poem's subject and meaning. "The Influenza" was written in 1890, when Churchill was fifteen years old and a student at school; he received a House Prize for the work (The Churchill Centre). The following is a consideration of the poem and its use of symbolism.
Nature Symbols and the Sun
Churchill opens the poem with a number of questions pertaining to the cruelty of the disease he is describing. The questions themselves may relate to the uncertainty felt by those who contract the disease, as well as by those who remain behind. In the line "It journeyed with the sun," the sun carries a symbolic association that differs from its normal usage. In general, the sun is symbolic of happiness and joy. In the poem, however, it acquires a more sinister connotation. Specifically, the sun appears to signify the inevitability and universality of the disease: the sun travels everywhere and eventually reaches everyone on earth. This traveling process also foreshadows Churchill's later assertion that nobody, regardless of status or wealth, is safe from infection. The disease, like the sun, does not discriminate.
Other elements of nature used in an unusual symbolic way are "adverse winds" and "floods of rain." In their extreme capacity, these natural forces are generally seen as destructive on a wide scale. Within the context of the illness, however, they are cast as potential — though ultimately ineffective — allies, when Churchill writes that "Nor adverse winds, nor floods of rain" could stop the effect or spread of the disease.
Geographical Symbolism: Siberia and France
During the remainder of the poem, Churchill uses symbolism in its more conventional sense to emphasize the terrible inevitability and fatal nature of the disease. One such image is "bleak Siberia." The adjective bleak places emphasis on Siberia as a symbol of everything terrible and inhuman. Yet when the disease is described as moving past it, the illness proves even more deadly and terrible than the suffering Siberia itself represents. This idea may also be symbolic of the fact that the cruelty associated with Siberia is perpetrated by human hands and preceded by considerations of guilt and innocence — whereas the disease is worse precisely because of its non-human and non-discriminatory nature.
"Merry France" is another location used in a symbolic way, and it contrasts with Siberia through the adjective merry. Once again, Churchill emphasizes that the disease cannot be stopped by either gloom or merriment, and that it is halted by neither natural nor human power. The country's warriors are described as "symbolic of initial human strength." The word initial is of particular importance: it signifies the state before the disease takes hold. Once the disease has claimed its grip, however, all human strength falters and the struggle becomes futile — and indeed fatal.
Conclusion
In general, the poem indicates that the disease is almost unconquerable, until at last some supernatural power acts to save the human race from complete annihilation. It is worth noting that, at the beginning of the 20th century, a further outbreak of influenza ravaged the world's population indiscriminately (Billings). It is almost as if Churchill's poem is prophetic and supernatural in this sense, lending the work a significance that reaches well beyond its biographical origins as a schoolboy prize poem.
Sources
Billings, Molly. "The Influenza Pandemic of 1918." June 1997. http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/
The Churchill Centre. "The Collected Poems of Sir Winston Churchill." 2006.
W.W. Norton & Company. "The Nineteenth Century: Realism and Symbolism."
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