The War in the Air

The War in the AirBy Howard Nemerov

For a saving grace, we didn't see our dead,

Who rarely bothered coming home to die

But simply stayed away out there

In the clean war, the war in the air.

Seldom the ghosts come back bearing their tales

Of hitting the earth, the incompressible sea,

But stayed up there in the relative wind,

Shades fading in the mind,

Who had no graves but only epitaphs

Where never so many spoke for never so few:

Per ardua, said the partisans of Mars,

Per aspera, to the stars.

That was the good war, the war we won

As if there was no death, for goodness's sake.

With the help of the losers we left out there

In the air, in the empty air. 

The poem describes about how the war is spread through the air. I like in the last passage how he says " That was the good war, the war we won as if there was no death, for goodness sake". I also liked in the first passage, the one line were " For a saving grace, we didn't see our dead, Who rarely bothered coming home to die." My favorite part was they rarely bothered coming home to die, because so many died during the war, and many few were able to come home. 

1. For a saving grace, we didn't see our dead, - Nobody knew when they were going to die, but so many died 

    Who rarely bothered coming home to die     that few were able to have their death at their home.

2 That was the good war, the war we won   -      A war is a good war if only you win and if nobody dies while

As if there was no death, for goodness's sake.   in the war. 

3. Seldom the ghosts come back bearing their tales -    What I think the incompressible sea is a bunch of

Of hitting the earth, the incompressible sea,                soldiers being bombed on the earth