He drowsed and was aware of silence heaped
Round him, unshaken as the steadfast walls;
Aqueous like floating rays of amber light,
The first lines of the poem describe a man falling into a light sleep using beautiful and contradictory imagery. The silence around him is both unshaken as steadfast walls and aqueous like floating rays of amber light. These descriptions engage the reader's senses in a way that does not depend solely on the concrete details of reality.
Silence and safety; and his mortal shore
Lipped by the inward, moonless waves of death.
Here, the poet clarifies that the drowsing man is in fact dying. Silence and safety are connected to the description of death by the use of a semicolon. A semicolon links two independent clauses that are closely related in thought, and thus equalizes silence, safety, and death. In Western cultures, it is not common to perceive the process of death in the context of safety. Death tends to be feared and abhorred. But in this poem, death is a somewhat gentle process.
Light many lamps and gather round his bed.
Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live.
Speak to him; rouse him; you may save him yet.
The poet implores the reader to care for the dying soldier in both a physical and energetic way. The implication is that Sassoon wishes for readers to know and care about the plight of soldiers. The middle line of these instructions ("Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live") is a metaphorical charge to care deeply for a fellow human being. At this point in the poem, there is still hope that the soldier will live. This serves to increase the poem's tension by prolonging the death.
