Interpretation on Unrest
The Valley of Unrest
Once it smiled a silent dell
Where the people did not dwell;
They had gone unto the wars,
Trusting to the mild-eyed stars,
Nightly, from their azure towers,
To keep watch above the flowers,
In the midst of which all day
The red sun-light lazily lay.
Now each visitor shall confess
The sad valley's restlessness.
Nothing there is motionless —
Nothing save the airs that brood
Over the magic solitude.
Ah, by no wind are stirred those trees
That palpitate like the chill seas
Around the misty Hebrides!
Ah, by no wind those clouds are driven
That rustle through the unquiet Heaven
Uneasily, from morn till even,
Over the violets there that lie
In myriad types of the human eye —
Over three lilies there that wave
And weep above a nameless grave!
They wave: — from out their fragrant tops
Eternal dews come down in drops.
They weep: — from off their delicate stems
Perennial tears descend in gems.Interpretation: A dell, a quiet tree filled valley, lies uninhabited by man as it been turned into a soldier’s graveyard. The people had gone to war. The heavens at night, stars distant in their towers view these circumstances as unimportant (“mild-eyed”) and minuscule when compared to that with the Cosmos. The light of day, showing he redness of the ground provides scope to humans visiting the site of grief, they remark on the restlessness.
Nothing is motionless, with the exception of airs that brood over the graves. Airs may refer to “oxygen”, however as the “stirring of the trees” and the “driven clouds” move uneasily from morning to evening, it refers to the verb form of Airs - to express publicly a grievance, and from there the stirring of the trees - movement of men’s hearts (palpitation like the seas in the North Atlantic around the Western end of Scotland) and the driven clouds - movement of ideas come to appreciate that which has been lost; Violets were used in Australia and New Zealand to commemorate lost soldiers in WW 1 (which would not be known at the time this poem is written) , but also associated with graves and funerals in the Greek and Roman culture .
The sadness is felt over this unmarked grave, that is marked simply by three lilies (also associated with funerals and interment), forever growing from the environment (eternal dews), and remembering in their own fragile way the sadness through the years ( literal def. of Perennial).
Five Miles Downrange:
Over the past several days of unrest, I was disturbed to see the vandalization of the Boston Vietnam Memorial , some news circulating on the internet have falsely shown the D.C. Vietnam Memorial being vandalized (indeed , this was a 2016 article depicting L.A. vandalism of a model) However, there has been other vandalism of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.
It is my hope that perpetrators of any destruction of cultural significance will be educated in the effect of the destruction to those that are most affected and represented by any memorials.
It is also my hope that those who have used Social Media to post inaccuracies of events, to their own political gain, learn to research events first before repeating a false narrative that exacerbates the situation and not let their own biases direct their emotional response.
