"Let us sleep now. . . .”..."See in text(Text of the Poem)
The last line of the poem is noteworthy in two respects. It is brief—much shorter than the other lines in the text—and the meter consists of four separate strong beats, in contrast to the iambic pentameter of the other lines. The effect is one of emphasis. There is nothing more to say between these two soldiers; in the absence of war, they are no longer enemies and are united forever in death.
"I parried; but my hands were loath and cold...."See in text(Text of the Poem)
The sleeper’s description of his encounter with the speaker on the battlefield, as well as his previous description of the speaker having “frowned” while killing him, indicates that neither felt personal enmity toward the other. This supports the idea that were it not for the war, they would not have been enemies.
"“I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed...."See in text(Text of the Poem)
The poem concludes with the sleeper’s ironic revelation: the sleeper and poem’s speaker had been enemies on the battlefield, and the speaker had killed him the day before. “Jabbed and killed” implies that they had fought in hand-to-hand combat. The sleeper calls him “my friend,” just as the speaker had addressed him as “friend” earlier in the text, suggesting a major theme in the poem: that only the war had made them enemies in life.
"the truth untold,
The pity of war, the pity war distilled...."See in text(Text of the Poem)
Something that has been distilled has been reduced to its most essential element or essence. War, the sleeper asserts, reduces all that is pitiful about war to its essence: the inability of those who die to speak the truth about it. The assertion supports the poem’s strong anti-war message.
"“here is no cause to mourn.”..."See in text(Text of the Poem)
The speaker thinks there is no reason for him and the sleeper to mourn, since even the sounds of the war can no longer touch them. These lines are a turning point in the poem; they introduce the section of the stanza that develops the poem’s anti-war message through the sleeper’s response to the speaker.
Although the sleepers in this place are suffering, there is no suggestion that they are being punished by God, and the sleeper’s appearing to bless the speaker argues against the idea of sinfulness. This “Hell,” it seems, has been created by someone other than God.
