by Kerry Michael Wood

Created on: December 11, 2009

A first reading of Henry Reed's Naming of Parts gives the impression that the speaker is a non-commissioned officer instructing recruits on the working components of their rifles. The tone is dry and factual; the diction, repetitive, without artifice, sterile, and unpoetic.

To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,

We shall have what to  do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts.


The conclusions of the first four stanzas and the entirety of the last stanza are the thoughts of one of the trainees. They are an ironic commentary on the NCO's words focusing on the beauty of fertile nature.

. . . Japonica
Glistens like coral in all the neighboring gardens,
        And  to-day we have naming of parts.

However, the author uses no quotation marks or italics to mark the transition from spoken word to interior monologue. Consequently, the poem could be interpreted as having only one voice: The corporal or sergeant droning aloud his lesson on the parts of instruments of death followed by his ironic comparison to what is life-giving  reproductive activity of plants, birds and bees.

It appears to be a period of rapid mobilization for a war that has just begun. The trainees are probably recent draftees rather than volunteers. Some equipment parts such as rifle slings are missing or unavailable. The situation is symbolic of the young  men. They are missing contact with the opposite sex which would provide them with "point(s) of balance." The "parts" of weapons of death are ironically analogous to sexual parts. Objects and actions have double significance.

The piling swivels (in American English  they would  be "stacking swivels"), breech, bolt, cocking-piece have obvious connections to matters procreative, as do actions such as assaulting and fumbling, sliding rapidly backwards and forwards. "Easing the Spring" refers both to the weapon mechanism and the season of reproduction and growth.

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