Poetry Analysis
Mason Payne
War Baby
He has not even seen you, he
Who gave you your mortality;
And you, so small, how can you guess
His courage or his loveliness?
Yet in my quiet mind I pray
He passed you on the darkling way -
His death, your birth, so much the same -
And holding you, breathed once your name.
- Pamela Holmes
Title
I think the title means that a soldiers wife will have a baby while he is at war.
Paraphrase
The mom is telling her baby that even though you haven't seem your dad, he is a very strong and loving person.
The girl can see the dad in their baby.
Connotation
He who gave you your mortality can also mean he who gave you life (like God gave Adam and Eve).
He passed you on the darkling way can also mean that the dad met the baby as he was going to heaven.
Shifts
The poem started to shift when it said, "he passed you on his darkling way" because the dad died at this point and was emotional in the story.
Title Revisited
I was right originally by saying that a mom will have a baby while her husband is at war.