Foreign Body (Symbol)
In Line 12, the poet uses a simile to compare the earth reflecting on the event of the battle to "a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin." While there are human bodies literally buried in the earth as a result of the war, this "foreign body" is symbolic of something else: the human potential to wage war and violence.
It is no mistake that the poet chooses to use the phrase "foreign body" to symbolize the implications of war. In physiology, a foreign body is an object that originates outside the human body and holds the potential to cause internal damage. But placed in the context of war, foreign bodies also suggest xenophobic tendencies.
Dance-macabre (Allegory)
This line refers to the Dance of Death, a medieval allegorical representation in which a personified Death leads one to the grave. There is a sense of universality in that everyone will experience this dance. Often this was artistically represented with details both frivolous and terrible, resulting in a pathos that reminds people of the fragility of life.
The skeletons in the poem, however, are "paused mid dance-macabre," meaning that they did not go peacefully to the grave (Line 15). They are stuck in some in-between place until the implications of the war are dealt with.
The Earth (Symbol)
The earth appears not only as the literal site of the battle where bones and other relics continue to surface in the present day, but as a symbol for the consequences of war and what needs to be reflected upon in order for healing to occur. In the beginning of the poem, the farmers uncover the bones of the "wasted young" as they "[tend] the land back into itself" (Line 3). To "tend" to something refers to the farmers' work of growing food as well as tending to a wound. This suggests that the unearthing of the bones will help heal the wounds of war.
Sheers personifies the earth as a sentinel standing guard, "reaching back into itself for reminders of what happened" (Line 11). Portraying the earth symbolically as a force from which humans must learn is a through line in Sheers' work. The act of remembrance is compared to "a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin" (Line 12). The literal unearthing of the bones from the earth is a symbolic uncovering of meaning. Sheers does not attempt to resolve the question of what we must do to reckon with the horror of war. Rather, through the symbol of the earth, he communicates that the asking in and of itself is essential for healing to occur.
Boots (Symbol)
The skeletons of the soldiers are discovered wearing "boots that outlasted them" (Line 16). This is symbolic of the way in which their lives were cut brutally short. An inanimate material created for the purpose of combat lasts longer than the men it is meant to be worn by. The boots have not broken down with time, suggesting that they are incompatible with the earth. The natural cycle of things is disrupted, hence the poet's use of the phrase "the wasted young" to refer to the soldiers wearing the boots (Line 2). This ties in to the larger theme of war: its wastefulness in terms of human life and the ways in which it affects the natural environment.
