The last to leave
Lyrics:
The guns were silent, and the silent hills
had bowed their grasses to a gentle breeze
I gazed upon the vales and on the rills,
And whispered, "What of these?' and "What of these?
These long forgotten dead with sunken graves,
Some crossless, with unwritten memories
Their only mourners are the moaning waves,
Their only minstrels are the singing trees
And thus I mused and sorrowed wistfully
I watched the place where they had scaled the height,
The height whereon they bled so bitterly
Throughout each day and through each blistered night
I sat there long, and listened - all things listened too
I heard the epics of a thousand trees,
A thousand waves I heard; and then I knew
The waves were very old, the trees were wise:
The dead would be remembered evermore-
The valiant dead that gazed upon the skies,
And slept in great battalions by the shore.
The poem is about the poet revisiting the place he once fought in, in the war. He looks around his surrounding and looks around at the different features of the landscape, "I looked at the vales and on the rills". He listens to the stories of the waves and the trees and remembers the soldiers that fought for his country, "I heard the epics of a thousand trees, A thousand waves I heard". The title of the poem hints that the main character was one of the last soldiers to leave the place of the, and this idea is supported by the lines of the poem "And this way I carefully thought and sadnessed sadly" and "The dead will be remembered evermore". The overall theme of the poem is about memory and respecting those who lost their lives fighting for their country.
The guns were silent, and the silent hills
had bowed their grasses to a gentle breeze
I gazed upon the vales and on the rills,
And whispered, "What of these?' and "What of these?
These long forgotten dead with sunken graves,
Some crossless, with unwritten memories
Their only mourners are the moaning waves,
Their only minstrels are the singing trees
And thus I mused and sorrowed wistfully
I watched the place where they had scaled the height,
The height whereon they bled so bitterly
Throughout each day and through each blistered night
I sat there long, and listened - all things listened too
I heard the epics of a thousand trees,
A thousand waves I heard; and then I knew
The waves were very old, the trees were wise:
The dead would be remembered evermore-
The valiant dead that gazed upon the skies,
And slept in great battalions by the shore.
The poem is about the poet revisiting the place he once fought in, in the war. He looks around his surrounding and looks around at the different features of the landscape, "I looked at the vales and on the rills". He listens to the stories of the waves and the trees and remembers the soldiers that fought for his country, "I heard the epics of a thousand trees, A thousand waves I heard". The title of the poem hints that the main character was one of the last soldiers to leave the place of the, and this idea is supported by the lines of the poem "And this way I carefully thought and sadnessed sadly" and "The dead will be remembered evermore". The overall theme of the poem is about memory and respecting those who lost their lives fighting for their country.