Spring Offensive poem

The poem begins in a quiet mood, with some soldiers reclining and sleeping while others stand still, restless on this "last hill" and looking out to the horizon. There is a sense of stillness, calm before the storm. Nature is gentle and beneficent here, with the grass swirling in the breeze and the sun warming their bones and oozing into their veins, bringing respite from pain. This calm is, however, deceptive. It is merely a prelude to something much worse: the calm before the storm. War breaks out and the brutality and death shatters the pastoral scene.