How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned, (4)
Who groans in their sleep? These guys are not particularly Zen sleepers. They're clearly troubled by something, and if we had to guess we'd say they're haunted by the horrors they experienced in war. Nightmares galore.
Quote #2
With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,
Lifting distressful hands as if to bless. (7-8)
Speaker number two is not giving off a particularly chillaxed vibe. He looks stressed-out and frightened, enough to completely freak out speaker number one. The fear mixed with recognition is particularly disturbing. How would you like if you saw someone walking down the street with a terror-stricken expression, then he turned to you and looked all, "wait, don't I know you?" That he's lifting his hands "as if to bless" is strange, too. It almost seems as if he's lifting his hands in defense, too, from some invisible threat.
Quote #3
With a thousand fears that vision's face was grained; (11)
Speaker number two looks as thought he's being troubled by a "thousand fears." That can't be a very flattering look. It's almost inhuman. Maybe he's being haunted all at once by every single fear he experienced during battle. No fun.
Quote #4
Yet no blood reached there from upper ground,
And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.
"Strange friend," I said, "Here is no cause to mourn." (12-14)
This is totally that point in the horror movie, when some unassuming person is standing in the creepy old house with all the weirdly quaint decorations saying, "there's nothing to be afraid of" then some ghost comes and steals her soul. This guy doesn't quite know what's coming to him.
Quote #5
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold. (43)
Even though speaker number two seems to forgive speaker number one, when he was about to die, he raised his hands in fear. It's a haunting image—someone trying to protect himself to no avail—and here he is, bringing it up so speaker number one can remember just how much fear he caused.