The poem presents the poet's attitudes concerning war - the insignificance and unnecessary sacrifice - through the use of language, symbolism, imagery and rhyme. In the first stanza, every sound in the first line is soft and quiet. We do not expect the first words to be 'softly and humbly' as the title of the poem suggests the men at war. The knowledge of the poem comes in the second line, although still it does …showed first 75 words of 441 total…

…showed last 75 words of 441 total…traces as the water has made them lose their 'inscriptions' identity. The last line of this stanza is just a repetitive summary of what happened in this stanza. In the final stanza, Slessor describes to see the dead seamen as a group cancelling off foe and enemies, as they are all dead. They are all buried in the same burial and land as this stanza creates depressing images of what happened to men at war.