Reported+Missing

=‘Reported Missing’= =Anna Gordon Keown=

This is a sonnet, traditionally a poetic form associated with love poetry. It is ambiguous as to whether the speaker in this poem is the soldier’s mother or lover. It is moving because the speaker is in denial and will soon have to accept the death of the missing soldier.

The poem can be divided into two sections – the first 12 lines express anger at the manner in which others so readily assume that the soldier is dead; the final rhyming lines express her certainty that he will he is not dead and will come again. The final lines are poignant as the reader realizes that one day the speaker will have to accept that the soldier is not returning to her.