“The Death of a Soldier” opens with an extended metaphor comparing the season of autumn with a soldier’s death. This metaphor conveys the senselessness and sheer quantity of lives lost during the First World War. Although not much is revealed about the speaker, Stevens was too old to be drafted at the time of the war and remained at his home during this period. The speaker does not provide violent details, indicating a separation between the speaker and the chaos of the war front; this descriptive and emotional distance may imply that the speaker was a civilian during this time, powerless and unable to help. The poem focuses instead on a sense of emptiness in the lack of recognition or ceremony for the many young men who lost their lives. The poem contemplates the futility and trauma of one of the bloodiest wars in history.

The speaker asserts that, like the leaves in autumn, when a soldier falls, “Life contracts and death is expected” (Line 1). The final line in the first stanza is end-stopped and the only line that is a complete sentence. The effect is emphatic and creates a starkness: “The soldier falls” (Line 3).