The Vapor - Unawareness/Ignorance Of His Death
In the beginning of the poem, the wife is still unaware of her husband's demise. The fog that surrounds her almost protectively symbolizes this unawareness. Through the mist, one cannot see clearly, one cannot see the truth.
The fog is still present the morning after learning of her husband's death, when she receives the letter he wrote before falling. In this moment, the wife has still not fully comprehended this loss. Life goes on, this day starts the same as every other day and she receives a letter from her husband. who is away. Though the fact that her husband is dead is know to her at this point in time, the realization of this truth is yet to fully develop and thus stays hidden in the mist for now.
The Street-Lamp - The Moment of Truth
The street-lamp symbolizes the moment that the wife learns of her beloved's demise. The lamp is described as cold, shining light on the brutal truth and reality of war and death. The warm, romantic candle light that symbolizes the hope for his return has to go and in its stead, the cold street-lamp reveals the truth to the wife.
The Postman - Normality and Routine
The postman who comes the day after the wife learns the terrible news symbolizes normality and the fact that while the wife's life may have been uprooted and changed forever, the world will still go on. One man's death in a war will not change the routine and workings of an entire nation. Life will go on around her and without him. On the other hand, resuming life as she has know it, with him not present with her, but alive and well somewhere in a foreign country.
The Worm - His Grave
The worm symbolizes the fact that the husband is now buried somewhere in the ground, in his grave after falling in battle. Instead of laying with his wife in their bed, his lifeless body is now accompanied by the worms in the ground that he is buried in, forever out of her reach. His body will eventually decay and become one with the earth again through which the worms will plough.
Home-Planned Jaunts - A Happy Future
In his letter, the husband writes of home-planned jaunts the two will undertake upon his return. These jaunts symbolize the beautiful, bright future both had envisioned for themselves, that is full of love, live and a happy family. Instead, the husband is dead and with him this future. The fact that his hopeful letter reaches his wife after learning of his death gives the poem a bittersweet ending, where one can imagine this bright future while knowing that it died with him.
