ICSE Class 9 Answered

In the poem A Small Pain in my Chest, the poet has narrated a conversation between an injured soldier and a civilian. Despite being grievously injured, the soldier makes it only obvious that he is tired after the night’s fight. Although the soldier can barely smile, he asks for some water to quench his thirst and states how gruelling the fight had been the night before. The soldier describes his struggle in the war field though he is losing his energy minute by minute. The dead bodies of his fellow soldiers make him remorseful but he continues to tell the civilian how worried he is about the reaction of his wife and mother seeing him in this condition.

The soldier introspects how his near and dear ones will react on hearing about his condition on the battlefield. He does not acknowledge the fact that he is shot by a bullet. Gradually, the soldier starts losing his vitality and experiences darkness around him. Although he wants to resume fighting after relaxing briefly, he breathes his last within a few moments.