A slow stream flows through a small green valley making the grass on its banks appear like long silvery strands. The sunlight pours down from the mountaintop and illuminates the entire valley. There lies a very young soldier. His head rested on the pillow made of fern. The thick undergrowth in the field serves as his bed upon which he sleeps, stretching his body.

The feet of the soldier is covered with flowers. There is a gentle and innocent smile on his face like that of an infant. The poet appeals to nature to keep him warm so that he does not catch a cold. He asks the insects not to disturb the soldier as he sleeps peacefully in the lap of nature. It is here that the poem takes a sudden and shocking turn as it reveals the two red holes in one side of the soldier’s body. His sleep suddenly takes on the gravity of an obvious expression of death, which is as unbecoming amidst the splendour of nature as the war against the backdrop of civilization. The reader cannot help feeling a helpless pity for the dead soldier, who, in that picturesque setting epitomizes the futility and ugliness of war.