What do you think the true meaning is behind this poem?

What do you think the meaning of this poem is? Meaning analyse it... and tell me what you think the meaning is behind it.


This is a poem by A. E. Housman:





When I would muse in boyhood


The wild green woods among,


And nurse resolves and fancies


Because the world was young,


It was not foes to conquer,


Nor sweethearts to be kind,


But it was friends to die for


That I would seek and find.





I sought them and I found them,


The sure, the straight, the brave,


The hearts I lost my own to,


The souls I could not save.


They braced their belts around them,


They crossed in ships the sea,


They sought and found six feet of ground,


And there they died for me.What do you think the true meaning is behind this poem?
to me it seems like a boy looking for good friends and found them. the boy went somewhere and died. the friends went looking for him and they found his grave. then the friends committed suicide.





Its a great but depressing poemWhat do you think the true meaning is behind this poem?
to me it sounded like war. A war in the forest. he didn't see it as foes to conquer, he saw it as defending his country, friends to die for. But instead of him dying to save his friends, he couldn't make it and instead the friends died for HIM, trying to save HIM. And crossing the sea, the war must have been in a different country. But this is what i interpreted the poem to mean, someone else will say a completely different thing. Only the author can know with this type of poem, a poem that doesn't actually say what it means. But i like this one, it's beautiful, but sad.

ktm