Weapons of War
"Arms and the Boy" is a poem about World War I, so naturally there are bound to be weapons lying around. We tend to think of weapons as mere objects, and of the people who use them as the real bad...
Sharp Objects
The second half of "Arms and the Boy" talks a lot about teeth, claws, and sharp objects (antlers and talons) used for killing, eating, and that sort of nasty thing. But these are all things that hu...
Animals
It's a jungle in here. Or something like that. In the poem, animals are associated with killing and weapons. The speaker uses animals in order to suggest that there is something inhuman about warfa...