Naming of Parts by Henry Reed

1) In Henry Reed’s poem Naming of Parts, the language in the first three and a half lines of each stanza is that of an army instructor explaining the parts of a riffle to a now group of soldiers as shown in the first three lines. Stanza 1: “Today we have naming if parts…” The second part of the same stanza is the thoughts of a day dreaming soldier as his mind wanders to a garden scene. “Japonica…”

2) The first half of this stanza describes parts of the rifle and how they work. The second half describes observation of nature. The rifle descriptions are exact and precise. The description of nature uses more imagery.

3) In each stanza there is a phrase with in the stanza that is repeated as the last line of that stanza. While the words are the same they relate to different things. The first being a rifle and how it operates the second to the Japonica plant and its role in nature

4) The effect of using these language differences and similarities is to show what Reed sees as the contest between the world of nature and the World of War.

On another level by using the Japonica flower Reed is expressing anti-atomic bomb sentiments. The origin of the word Japonica is Japan. Reed did not select this flower randomly this is symbolism. Reed indicates that the United States did not have a “point of balance” with the atomic bombing of Japan.