1943

Well, first off, Ed Monohan and Dominick Esposito are fictional.  But I think it's interesting that Dom lost and then he died quickly in war.  It definitely shows how they were prepared for war, and Dom was less prepared.  Then, I like how it talk about milk being delivered.  I think it shows the crazy drastic change from high school to war.  One day your having milk delivered to your door, the next your bleeding "to death in the surf."  And that comes back to the beginning, the boys were prepared for this.  They were taught in a way just for war.  Taught to play with guns and to enjoy fighting.  And yet, and the last line shows, there was nothing any one could do about it.  This poem could easily be preachy or some sort of call to duty.  But with that one line: "what could we do?" it becomes just a sad fact.  Donald Hall simply wants to talk about the sad reality of war...that boys are trained for it, but not seeing the sudden brutality and no one knows what to do about it.