Why does the gunner experience freezing

The speaker has already been placed inside the literal war machinery of the state, the bomber. Now the reader also sees the speaker inside the ideological machinery of a warring nation, inside the political war machine. It doesn't seem to be a place the speaker wanted to be. He "[fell] into the State" the way someone might fall into a hole. Not nice. During the draft, young men were taken into the army whether they wanted to join or not—they fell into service to their country.

Think that's it for "the State? Randall is able to squeeze even more out of the phrase. We can also read "the State" as state of mind. But the son falls from this dream a mother's dream of a son's life into the reality of "the State. Line 1 gives us this key information: when, "mother" the creator, the life giver, the nurturer is asleep unconscious, unaware the speaker falls.

Falling into something makes it sound unintentional, not wanted. You know what Shmoop is talking about—that relationship you kind of fell into last weekend and now you aren't sure how to get out of? Kind of like that. A fall is usually a negative thing: falling stock market, falling GPA, falling rocks—bad, bad, bad.

And where does the speaker end up? The speaker tells us that he "fell into the State. The word "State" functions metaphorically in a couple different ways here. Because of the capitalization, the first reading of the word that probably comes to mind is state in the sense of nations or organized groups—bodies that, unfortunately, have histories of going to war.

There is also the sense of state as in emotional state —a new state of awareness after the fall, or a state of anxiety and fear at the prospect of battle. The speaker is "hunched in [the] belly" of "the State," a description of the gunner hunched inside the ball turret of the bomber. So, the speaker fell from childlike innocence into the knowledge of violence and war. See what happens when mom turns her back for just a second?

There is another metaphor at work here. What comes to mind when you picture this gunner, "hunched in [the] belly" of the bomber? Just like Jarrell mentioned in his note, it brings to mind a child in the womb.

That would make the bomber the mother. And you thought your mom was tough! So, the ball turret becomes a metaphor for the womb. Andrew has a keen interest in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the subject. His poems are published online and in print. Randall Jarrell's poem The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner can be found in many anthologies and is his most well known work.

Published in it drew directly from his own involvement with military aircraft and airmen during WW2. The ball turret was a feature of the bomber aircraft, a B or B, made of plexiglass and set into the belly of the plane. From this sphere a gunner, upside down, could track the enemy, revolving as he let fly with his machine guns. The poem, written in first person, gives the deceased turret gunner a 'live' voice. It is a moving yet quite disturbing single stanza which delivers plenty of food for thought.

When the war ended Jarrell published two books of poetry full of his war-time experiences, Little Friend, Little Friend and Losses He continued in his academic roles as both teacher and reviewer of poetry, producing essays and critiques which are still held in high esteem. His book Poetry and the Age is considered a classic. Randall Jarrell, outspoken critic, novelist, poet and cat lover, with a sharp mind and keen insight, published his last book in , The Lost World, the year in which he died.

It contains some notable poems, amongst them one titled Next Day, all about a middle aged woman who one day whilst out shopping realizes that she has grown old. 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. This is a poem in which the speaker gives a summary of events post mortem; it could well be a spirit still caught up in the confusion of war yet expressing a calm if eerie need to be concise and true.

The reader is taken through the states of a timeless existence. Birth becomes death and vice versa? You can picture the gunner inside that bubble, which is a womb in effect, taking off into the air, thinking of his mother back home, sweating, trapped inside, vulnerable, like a child, about to face the enemy.