THE LAST TO LEAVE
The Last To Leave Lyrics:
The guns were silent, and the silent hills had bowed their grasses to a gentle breeze I gazed upon the vales and on the rills, And whispered, "What of these?' and "What of these? These long forgotten dead with sunken graves, Some crossless, with unwritten memories Their only mourners are the moaning waves, Their only minstrels are the singing trees And thus I mused and sorrowed wistfully I watched the place where they had scaled the height, The height whereon they bled so bitterly Throughout each day and through each blistered night I sat there long, and listened - all things listened too I heard the epics of a thousand trees, A thousand waves I heard; and then I knew The waves were very old, the trees were wise: The dead would be remembered evermore- The valiant dead that gazed upon the skies, And slept in great battalions by the shore. |
The poem 'The Last to Leave' was written by Leon Gillert after WW1. The poem begins with the line 'The guns were silent, and the silent hills had bowed their grasses to a gentle breeze.' The guns were silent is used to tell the audience that the war has finished, it means the fighting has stopped and the battle fields were silent. A gentle breeze means that the terror and noise of the fighting has calmed to just a gentle breeze.
These long forgotten dead with sunken graves is talking all of the soldiers that have died during the war, the word forgotten is referring to all of soldiers that died throughout the long war. The sunken graves are the graves of the dead soldiers that have sunken into the ground of the battle fields.
I watched the place where they had scaled the height, the height whereon they bled so badly is a line that refers to the place of the battle field, a place where all of the soldiers bled so badly and put their precious lives on the line.
The line 'Throughout each day and through each blistered night, I sat there long, and listened - all things listened too,' is describing the severe and difficult conditions faced throughout war and always tells the audience how how the soldiers were a team and all listened too each other throughout the very hard times.
'The valiant dead that gazed upon the skies, and slept in great battalions by the shore' is another verse in the poem that describes that they slept by the shores in Gallipoli, and says that the dead soldiers died facing the glorious skies.
These long forgotten dead with sunken graves is talking all of the soldiers that have died during the war, the word forgotten is referring to all of soldiers that died throughout the long war. The sunken graves are the graves of the dead soldiers that have sunken into the ground of the battle fields.
I watched the place where they had scaled the height, the height whereon they bled so badly is a line that refers to the place of the battle field, a place where all of the soldiers bled so badly and put their precious lives on the line.
The line 'Throughout each day and through each blistered night, I sat there long, and listened - all things listened too,' is describing the severe and difficult conditions faced throughout war and always tells the audience how how the soldiers were a team and all listened too each other throughout the very hard times.
'The valiant dead that gazed upon the skies, and slept in great battalions by the shore' is another verse in the poem that describes that they slept by the shores in Gallipoli, and says that the dead soldiers died facing the glorious skies.