In the poem "This is the dark time, my love" by Martin Carter, why do you think the poet uses soldiers and guns in association with nature?

Interpretation of the
poem will differ with individual readings and,therefore, understand that this is my own personal
interpretation andanswer to your question.

In the poem "This is a dark
time, my love", Carter shows the power that artificial elements have over those which are
natural. (Artificial elements are guns and soldiers- soldiers because they are made into
soldiers by man.)

A specific line in the poem that supports that man is seen
as superior to nature is:

Whose boot of steel tramps down
the slender grass

The narrator is warning his love that
this is a time of war. During war, nothing weak is able to survive. The sun must hide itself and
the red flower (or rose), a symbol of love, must bend its head (personified to show that the
rose, which depicts love, cannot exist). The narrator is also warning his love that even her
dreams are not safe from the weapons of man:

It is the man
of death, my love, the stranger invader
Watching you sleep and aiming at your
dream.

Here, one could interpret that the lines again
personifies death as having a human body which can invade ones life and kill their dreams. While
death does kill ones dreams, one cannot dream when dead, it is much more significant when taken
in the context that dreams are natural and can be killed by man.