"The Nightmare Never Ends"

The Nightmare Never Ends

Close your eyes and go to sleep,
My poor, haunted soldier man,
I'll try my best to keep you safe,
In any way I possibly can.

Cradled there in my loving arms,
He drifted off to Vietnam once more.
I tried my best to soothe him,
But he was already back in the war.

His body's tense and twitching,
As he dreams of yesteryear,
I call out his name in vane,
Just trying to ease his fear.

But the battle is already brewing,
He's in the mist of a fire fight,
And for what seems like an eternity,
My soldier thrashes in the night.

Chris Woolnough

The poem “The Nightmare Never Ends” by Chris Woolnough describes a soldier who is having nightmares about the war. He is in his bed, tossing and turning, and he cannot be soothed by the speaker. This poem is basically a description of post-traumatic stress disorder. The tone of the entire poem is almost frightening in the way that it describes the soldier. Woolnough’s detail selection creates this tone by including ideas that are unnerving to American citizens. The poem also details the soldier fighting in the war, and how he is almost certain that he will die. Overall, this poem has a strong anti-war sentiment because of the way the poem describes the never-ending long-term effects of fighting in the war, assuming the soldier actually survives.

And it's too late to bring him home,
He's fighting along side his brothers,
He hears his comrades cry out in pain,
And call out for their mothers.

He's soaked in sweat as he jumps about,
He feels the bullets whizzing by,
His body's numb as he checks himself,
He's so certain he's gonna die.

No, not today my brave hero,
Though you've lost so many friends,
He opens his eyes as the dream has past,
But the nightmare never ends.