The poem "The Gift in Wartime" by Tran Mong Tu expresses the harsh impacts of the Vietnam War through the speaker's perspective as a woman who lost her husband in the war. The speaker offers items like roses and her youth to her deceased beloved but is met with the grim "gifts" of war such as the smell of blood and a motionless body. Through alternating lines describing what she offers versus what the war gives in return, the poem conveys the tragic human costs of conflict and the speaker's longing to be reunited with her lost love.

1. The Gift in War time
Tran Mong Tu (translated by Vann Phan)
• It is a war poem.
• But poet expresses an anti-war opinion.
• Anti-war advocates for peace and criticizes the war.
• Anti war poem explores the death, horror and
destruction caused by war.
• War is against the humanity.
Gift in Wartimes are as follows:
• Dead body, coffin, injury, separation, melancholy,
farewell.
• Dead soldier's medal, uniform, locket, watch
• Flowers, and letter from the Army Head quarter.
• Poet herself has lost her young and loving husband in
war.
Poem

2. VS Vietnam
America

4.  Her husband was killed in a Vietnam war (1954-
1975).
 Vietnam war was occurred between Vietnam
and America.
 In the poem 'The Gift in Wartime', Tran
addresses an absent person (dead soldier) .
 For example, as she says, “I offer you roses,” the
person to whom she is speaking is not present
and can neither hear nor understand what she is
saying.

5. Tran Mong Tu

6. Background Information
 “War is a terrible thing,” says Tran Mong Tu,
 She has first-hand experience of the Vietnam War
(1954-1975 = 21 Years).
• According to Tran, “The Vietnam War is a shameful
experience, for both Vietnamese and Americans.”
• Many people in both countries felt the terrible tragedy
of the war.
• Losses in the war were heavy; more than two million
Vietnamese and 57,000 Americans died.
Analysis &Theme:
• The speaker's attitude toward war is one of sadness
and bitter irony.
• Harsh effects of war in human life; death
• Separation

7. Summary
The poem entitled "The Gift in Wartime" is
written by Tran Mong Tu. The writer grew up in
Vietnam. This poem is about the harsh effects of war
on human lives. The speaker in the poem is the poet
herself where she talks to her beloved husband who
was died in Vietnam war.
The poem begins with the speaker offering
someone, an unnamed "you" (-referred to the
beloved of the poet who is no more), roses and a
wedding gown to cover the grassy grave. The poet says
that the war replies by giving her medals, silver stars, and a
badge. These things appear to be less significant than the
items that the speaker offers to her beloved.

8. The speaker says that she offers her youth to her
husband. The war gives them the "smell of blood" i.e. death.
The youth of the poet passed away with the bad news that is
the death of her beloved.
The speaker offers cloud and cold winter to the
unnamed "you". She means to say that she sacrificed the best
thing of her life for the war. But the war offered her a
motionless body. His lips cannot make smiles and eye cannot
make a sight.
At last, the speaker apologizes to her beloved for
sending him to the war that took his life away from her. She
promises her dead beloved that she would meet him in their
next life. She wants to hold the shrapnel (a fragment of the
exploding bomb) that will help them to recognize each other.

14. Structure of the Poem:
• There are seven stanzas.
• Every stanza consists of four lines.
• Every other stanza starts with "I offer" and "You
give me."
• Every line starts with a capital letter.
• The poem follows a particular pattern.
• Their gifts are mentioned in alternative
paragraphs example, in paragraph one, three,
and five she talks about the gifts she gave him.
• On the other hand, in paragraphs two, four and
six, she talks about the gifts her husband gave
her.
• In the last paragraph, she promises to meet him