Firstly, the most important themes are the death and the loss, the war, and the

loved ones. For

the first theme, Death and loss, there are some quotes from the poem that help us understand the
theme better. “Remembering again that I shall die” The speaker tells himself that he must die, this
shows how he has no love for life, but he still has to live. Having a pessimist tone, the author
makes us feel worried about him. “Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon” The dead are in a
better place than him, and the rain carried them away. To finish with this theme, the final four
quotes of the poem. “Like me who have no love which this wild rain Has not dissolved except the
love of death If love it be towards what is perfect and Cannot the tempest tell me, disappoint”.
The poet goes back to his own life and thinks about how others have “no love” that hasn´t been
dissolved by the rain. There´s no love aside from “the love of death” this love he feels is the only
important thing to him, the only fact he can depend on. Instead of loving something “perfect”, he
loves something unavoidable, death is his fate, and he is conscious about it and has accepted it.
The second big theme is war, because the author was on First World War, when he wrote the
poem. There are some quotes, such as “Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain” The wild
rain is a metaphor of the war, you never expect a war and its consequences, him as a soldier it’s
the only thing he can feel. “On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me” The soldier has to be in a hut,
a weak hut, where a simple missile can kill him within a second. This line shows how insecure and
isolated the author was, with a powerless tone, and a vulnerable mood. Also, this line of the
poem, “For washing me cleaner than I have been” Rain represents cleansing and how it was one
positive thing about it. And of course, this line has a literal meaning, because he was in a war, so
this rain gave him the opportunity to be clean again. The mood in this sentence is peaceful,
because the author depends on rain, but this time it´s a good consequence of it.
The third and final theme is the loved ones, because along the poem, the poet expresses his
feeling towards them. For example, in this line “But here I pray that none whom I once loved Is
dying tonight or lying still awake” The speaker prays that no one he has loved, is living like he is. He
hopes that his family and friends are safe, not dying tonight or lying still awake, unlike him. The
author has a melancholic tone while he speaks about his loved ones, making us, the readers feel
sad for him. In the following line “Either in pain or thus in sympathy” The speaker accepts that
some of this people might be in sympathy, but he still doesn´t want them to feel that way.
“Helpless among the living and the dead” Nothing matters anymore to the author, living or dying,
he has an indifferent and careless tone. At the same time, he pictures those he loves being
somewhere between “living and the death”. Finally, the last quote about loved ones “Like a cold
water among broken reeds” The poet refers to his family/friends as if they were caught as a “cold
water”, that would be “among broken reeds” in a river.