The Leveller by Robert Graves

Right at the beginning, Robert Graves introduces the place of war (Martinpuich) to the readers and claims that on that horrible night two soldiers faced death. Both of them were fired at by the same projectile (missile), they together fell down in one pile without any sensation and limped like slaughtered sheep. “Slaughtered sheep” suggests that they were killed mercilessly and very effortlessly.

The second stanza describes one of these soldiers that he was eighteen year old and was weak and not very strong. “Blue eyed” suggests that he was still amateurish and not experienced enough to participate in a war; he was thin and not very bold which means he was not capable or not an able candidate to fight in one such war. He had been forced into it and he was as inexperienced as less than ten years in service. The speaker says it is a shame and pity that military authorities of his unit had sent inefficient and uninterested people for the war.

The third stanza gives an account of the other soldier: that he was from a far off land, his face looked rough and unshaven and his hands hairy; this line suggests that he was older and more experienced, as he had already fought wars in Mexico and Ecuador. Hence, he had encountered death and hell before. The second and third stanzas put together bring out the contrast and differences between the soldiers and their background.

In the next stanza, the speaker continues and asserts that this well experienced, elderly and seasoned soldier was a valorous and gallant man. This section of the poem is referring to the war veteran, a man who has seen battle many times before, and so it would have been as though that he would have become accustomed to facing situations where he could die. The poet describes him as a ‘cut – throat wild’ and this suggests that as a soldier the man was very brutal in his fighting technique and essentially “took no prisoners” when he battled enemies. Ironically such a war veteran while dying had come down to the state of a child and groaned for his mother. This also means that he feared death and felt insecure at that time. Whereas the young man who was innocent had metaphorically worn a man’s clothes which means he bravely died cursing God with brutal oaths; as he had not yet prepared himself to die that young and he desired as well as deserved to live longer.

The following stanza establishes old Sergeant Smith’s attitude towards both the deaths. The speaker sarcastically calls the Sergeant “kindest of men” as the Sergeant is actually being very derogatory and superficially appreciative of both the soldiers. He wrote out two copies of the funeral speech in a habitual fashion/manner only to cheer up the woman folk of each soldier.

The last stanza presents the funeral speech in which the Sergeant impersonally proclaims that the soldier had died a martyr’s death (by fighting hard) and they, that is his peers of the same unit deeply felt sorry for his death. He also stated that everyone would deeply miss a true friend. It looks like the Sergeant did not really mean anything but had just said it as a ritual or usual practice.