Softly and humbly to the Gulf of Arabs
The convoys of dead sailors come;
This quote concisely introduces the theme, setting, and mood of the poem. The only concrete allusion in the poem occurs in this first line, which indicates that the sailors are arriving to the Gulf of Arabs. Subverting the genre of war poetry, the sailors are not confidently invading, but entering “humbly.” Line 2 amplifies this subversion by revealing that the sailors' arrival is “humble” because they are already deceased. This couplet thus introduces the mournful, haunting tone of the poem.
Between the sob and clubbing of the gunfire
Someone, it seems, has time for this,
Though the poem conveys an anti-war message, it also commemorates the bravery of individual soldiers who exercised empathy and humanity in the midst of conflict. The speaker acknowledges the courage of a war hero risking his life to bury and give a last farewell to dead soldiers, despite not knowing if these soldiers are allies or enemies. The poem expresses the intricacies of war that go beyond the exchange of fire between adversaries. This anonymous person sought to give the soldiers the dignity that the reality of war has robbed them of—rather than anonymous, naked victims, they are now memorialized through the hero’s makeshift crosses and inscription. At the same time, these lines highlight the constant action and violence of war that produces trauma for those who participate. This person presumably had little time to honor the dignity of the dead men, before being forced to join in the violence again. These intermittent periods of violence and mourning are reflected in the quote, as the speaker discusses the moments between the “sob and clubbing of the gunfire.” In this framing, the periods of intense violence and devastation—the clubbing—are interspersed with moments of mourning and reckoning—the sob.
'Unknown seaman' - the ghostly pencil
Wavers and fades, the purple drips,
This quote encapsulates the poem’s emphasis on the anonymity, and even dehumanization, produced by warfare. The seamen are anonymous; as the poem explores in sparing but haunting detail, they have died without any recognition or mourning beyond the commemoration marked by an unknown person. This person is in tun anonymous, as the speaker does not identify them. By isolating the reader from both the men who have died and the person who mourns them, this quote amplifies the poem’s tone of loneliness and isolation. The person who made the inscription is further removed from the poem by the use of personification—the pencil itself spells out the message mourning the sailors, resulting in a double layer of anonymity as the mourner is erased from the text. The seaman’s brief inscription also already “wavers and fades,” pointing to the illusory and insufficient nature of mourning during war.
Or fought with us, or neither; the sand joins them together,
Enlisted on the other front.
The speaker affirms that the common denominator in war is death, as it equalizes every person regardless of allegiance. He addresses the senselessness of war beyond patriotic duty since all persons share a common humanity. Death removes the artificial barriers between the soldiers, as the speaker can no longer determine for which side they fought. The dead bodies have no commitment to this world, demonstrating the ultimate futility of warfare and geopolitical conflicts.
