"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" : Translation, Summary, and Analysis

Title: "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner"
Author: Randall Jarrell
Published: 1945
Themes: 
     -War
     -The Apathy of the State

Poem in a nutshell: A dead soldier narrating his tragic death.

Image of gunner cramped in a ball turret.

Original Text:

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. 

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Note from author Randall Jarrell:

"A ball turret was a Plexiglas sphere set into the belly of a B-17 or B-24, and inhabited by two .50 caliber machine-guns and one man, a short small man. When this gunner tracked with his machine guns a fighter attacking his bomber from below, he revolved with the turret; hunched upside-down in his little sphere, he looked like the foetus in the womb. The fighters which attacked him were armed with cannon firing explosive shells. The hose was a steam hose." 

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Summary:

One of the most important elements of the poem is the publication date, 1945 C.E. The date should look familiar since it is significant of the period in which World War II was fought. Thus, the reader can surmise that the setting for the poem will be related to the events surrounding WWII--and it is: a battlefield. 

The speaker, a dead gunner pilot, recounts his final battle through a series of disturbing images, including birth, war, and well....death. 

Due to the poem's difficulty in ascertaining a literal translation, the analysis of the poem will be broken down line by line below.

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Analysis:

Line One

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,

• The word "mother" suggests not only a womb or a safe place but it also serves as a loaded metaphor for the speaker's mother, the universal mother, and Mother Earth, in a sense. The first half of the first line creates a touching scene: a mother and her son. And, from this scene, there is as sense of childlike innocence--until the child falls into the "State."
• Notice that the word "State" is capital, implying a sense of menace, and this creates a stark contrast between the previous image of the nurturing mother.
• Also, although the image of "mother's sleep" may seem peaceful, it may also be suggestive of parental negligence.
• A  more literal interpretation of the line might be that the speaker chose to enlist in the army during a moment of parental negligence. 
• The phrase "I fell" is indicative of the Fall of Man or Original Sin.

Line Two

And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

• Unlike the mother's womb which is warm and inviting, the State is a cold and harsh environment; thus we have the term "freezing."
• The phrase "wet fur" is indicative of animal imagery which is connotative of innocence, primal nature, and birth.

Lines One and Two: Summary

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

• The first two lines of the poem literally describe the gunner's cramped position in the ball turret. Metaphorically, the speaker details his fall from warm, childlike innocence to that of cold violence and war.

Line Three

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,

• The phrase "Six miles from earth" alerts the reader to the fact that the gunner is at a very high altitude. The speaker's life before the war feels like a "dream."
• Thus, in the air, the gunner undergoes a sort of fragmented reality. 
• It is important to note that the line, speaking of dreams, is has a mysterious, dream-like quality to it.

Line Four

I woke to black *flak and the nightmare fighters.

• As the speaker snaps back into reality, he describes his existence in the ball turret as a "nightmare." 
• *Flak is antiaircraft fire.

Lines Three and Four: Summary

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.

• Literally, the gunner is up in the air in the midst of antiaircraft fire fighting for his life.
• Notice the contrasting language and imagery between the two lines.
• The first line juxtaposes "life" with "dream" while the second line indicates that reality is death.

Line 5

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

• This last line of the poem is almost an inversion of the first. Where the first line of the poem contained imagery of birth, the final line illustrates an image of abortion.
• The gunner is dead and his remains are cleaned out of the turret with a hose.
• Note that the gunner was originally born of his mother but this last line indicates his rebirth from the State. However, the gunner's rebirth is equal to non-existence. It's infertile. Thus, the nation or the State breeds death.
• Like an aborted fetus, the gunner's life is cut short.
• The speaker's blatant, harsh depiction of his death lies in direct contrast to the image of the "heroic death" that the State perpetuates.
• In essence, there is nothing glorious, dignified, or romantic about a soldier's death.

For more information on this poem, I would recommend visiting the following site:

Schmoops "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner"

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