On Passing the New Menin Gate

Poem:
Who will remember them, passing through the Gate
The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?
Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate, -
Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones?
Crudely renewed, the Salient folds it own
Paid are it dim defenders by this pomp;
Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone,
The armies who endured that sullen swamp.
Here was the world’s worst wound. And here with pride
‘Their name liveth forever,’ the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
As these intolerable nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulcher of crime.

Paraphrasing:
Line 1-2: What is the point of having this war memorial? Who will remember them. All those who would appreciate this memorial are dead.
Line 3-4: Who will forgive the awful way they died or speak the truth of their horrible fate? They were doomed to die, they didn’t want to be a soldier, they had to. The dead can’t forgive.
Line 5: The soldiers were in a bad military position that projects into the position of the enemy (salient).
Line 6: The only reason why some soldiers survived was their nobly behavior.
Line 7-8: All the men who died get a name on the stone for defending their country.
Line 9: The soldiers fought the greatest war the world had ever seen so far and all they got was their name on the gate.
Line 10: Names do not tell you what happened nor who they were. Names will be forgotten.
Line 11-12: There are lots of people who fought for their country and sacrificed themselves, and no one will know who they were. They even killed for their country.
Line 13-14: The soldiers who are dead may take this memorial down.

Exercises:
1) What does line 2 make clear? They didn’t die as an hero. They were just the way to pass other Salient.
2) Which line says the same thing? Line 5
3) Explain line 6 and 7. They were paid, as an appreciation for the protection the delivered, in a way that their names where simply put on...