It was hard for me to pick just a few lines from this poem. For me each stanza has great meaning and addresses many different issues. Though each stanza says something unique and significant, I found myself searching for some kind of comfort or resolve in the next stanza , but I didn't find it, not even in the end. I think this true about death sometimes. Some people say "time heals all wounds" but like love, death can also be "An ever fixed mark" (Shakespeare)
Like Jake, I too found line 45 very touching "Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid/ Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire/ Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed/ Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre". I think why this stanza stood out to me was the photographs of the graveyards, especially the "parting day" picture. Besides there being a beautiful sunset the earth looks uneven; low in some places high in others. This gives me a feeling of unpredictability; even though we know death will come to us all, we are uncertain when and where it will strike. Therefore when death does come sometimes our lives are left misshapen and we are laid were we fall. In this poem we can still find beauty in what could have been and contemplate our own unexplored paths. On the other hand it also lets me know that just because these people were "unhonored" doesn't mean they didn't have experiences of a seasoned traveller, or didn't have has much passion as Shakespeare. They could have partaken in just as many heroic deeds as Achilles did. The only difference is that their deeds were not made known, it gives a new meaning to unsung heroes.
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