"Like a wind-murmur
Begins a rumour of waves
One long note getting louder
The water breathes a deep sigh"
In her epic memorial, Oswald often returns to natural images to offer some distinction to the far-reaching effects of the Trojan War. This excerpt reveals how even the land itself felt the loss profoundly. Nature calls out to itself with a cry of pain, a resignation to the petty ways of humanity.
"Poor woman lying in her new name alone
She said even on his wedding night
He seemed to be wearing armour
He kept yawning and looking for away"
Iphidmas' wife recalls with bitterness how war seemed to have already claimed her new husband. They were married barely a day when he left her, leaving the woman to doubt her own value. She couldn't compete with the violent allure of war.
"And HECTOR died like everyone else. . .
He always knew it would happen
He who was so boastful and anxious"
Hector's honor didn't spare him anything awful on the battlefield. Like his men and the men opposing them, he died by the spear. In a way, he expected this to be the end for him because of his arrogance in life. He didn't run away in fear, either; rather, he embraced the conflict in one final act of honor.
"In a daze of loneliness
Their conversation unfinished"
In an ode to friends in battle, Oswald remarks about the individual act of death. Although they remain side by side, the soldiers are suddenly ripped apart. Sometimes the act is so sudden that it doesn't register as death so much as this confusing absence.
