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Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.
Remember, we who take arms against each other

dispossess: dislodge; deprive

The poet says that we should remember that whenever someone tells us
to hate a person from another country, to think him as our enemy, and
whenever we think someone to be our enemy, then we deprive
ourselves, we cheat ourselves, and we condemn ourselves. He says
that we should stay away from such negativity. We should not consider
anyone to be our enemy. During a war, both the parties must bear the
loss.

And that is why the poet says that war is not in our favour. He says that
whenever we pick any weapon against someone, we should remember
one thing…….

Stanza 5

It is the human earth that we defile.
Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence
Of air that is everywhere our own,
Remember, no men are foreign, and no countries strange.

defile: make dirty; pollute
outrage the innocence of: violate the purity of

We should keep in mind that whenever we pick weapons against any
person, we make the Earth dirty because weapons kill people and their
bodies which fall on the Earth make it dirty. Whenever war happens, it
leads to a lot of bloodshed, fire and death. These dead bodies
accumulate on the Earth and make it impure. The fire of war which
erupts, the smoke which comes out, and the dust which fills the air - it is
so dirty that it pollutes and outrages the purity of the air.

With all these things the poet wants to give us a message that we should
not indulge in war. Finally, he ends the poem by writing the first line in
reverse and saying that Remember, no men are foreign, and no
countries strange.

Literary Devices

i. Rhyme Scheme - The entire poem is written in free verse. There is
no rhyme scheme in the poem.
The literary devices used are as follows –