Analysis

• "For years afterwards" - The opening lines emphasise how deadly the

  battle was as they found the remains for “years afterwards”.
• "the wasted young," - The adjective “wasted” suggests the young

  soldiers lost their lives before they had really started living.
• "as they tended the land back into itself." - the verb "tended" personifies the land, suggesting that the farmers tried to care for the wounded surface that was so badly damaged by the war.
• "A chit of bone," - "A chit" is a small note and it indicates that these pieces of bone contain a message for us about the brutalities of war.
• "broken bird’s egg of a skull," - The metaphors of a “china plate” and “broken bird’s egg” emphasise how fragile and precious the human body is.
• "to walk, not run," - The command “to walk, not run” creates a cynical tone to the poem - the poet clearly felt the orders sent the soldiers to

  their deaths.
• "stands sentinel," - In stanza four, Sheers again personifies the land. The

  noun “sentinel” links back to soldiers standing watch all night and suggests the land cannot rest because of the horrors it has seen in war.
• "like a wound working a foreign body" - The simile “like a wound working a foreign body” suggests the land is trying to cleanse itself of the damage that has been done.
• "This morning, twenty men buried in one long grave," - Here the poem

  switches to the present tense and makes the tragedy seem more immediate and real for the reader. The horrors of war are still being

  felt today and remind us of the fatal consequences of conflict.
• "a broken mosaic of bone" - The noun “mosaic” suggests the intricate and beautiful nature of the human body
• "linked arm in arm," - The phrase “linked arm in arm” suggests the soldiers were close as a division and stayed together as a team, even in death.
• "As if the notes they had sung" - Soldiers often sang to keep their spirits up in the darker moments of war. Welsh divisions were particularly well-known for their songs.
• "slipped from their absent tongues." The final stanza creates a haunting tone. The adjective “absent” suggests the men’s voices were lost in battle– they were silenced by their generals and then the machine

  guns. Only now, “with this unearthing”, is the truth emerging.