The poem makes me feel unhappy. The theme is about dieing slowly and in big numbers which is not often noticed by many people and is seen as normal. Like leafs falling in autumn and snow flakes in winter, seen like nature. During the autumn the leafs drop because they are weak, they drop because the wind is strong and it causes them to drop. But on a still afternoon the leafs will not fall. This makes me think that the poem says that they do not have to die, Slain by no wind of age or pestilence, killing the worlds beauty and making it dull . although the poem is slow it is powerfull and makes a deep inpact on me.
During the first world war people fell like leafs from trees. For no reason, because the author (Margaret Postgate Cole) is a pacifist she does not believe in war. She believes that there should be no war and the people should not die. Which is what this poem is saying.
The poem uses multiple metaphors to make connections to the setting and things that do not have to die, like leaves. The poem is about people but people are not mentioned once, it is about war but instead the author uses words like autumn. A war is a time of death for people and so is autumn a time of death to the beautifull leaves on the trees.
React!