As a train moves through a thin, stony countryside of poor villages and empty roads, the most noticeable landmarks are graveyards. They appear every few miles, dark and solemn but also decorated with bright flowers, garlands, and wreaths—some even placed for the passengers to see. The speaker finds these burial grounds strangely cheerful. Unlike the lonely living, the dead seem to share a growing comradeship. They have finished with hardship and disappointment, and their resting places feel companionable rather than frightening. Smoke, snow, grass, and the sighs of neighbours pass over them, while their iron urns and crude vases keep a kind of gentle ritual for forgotten faces. The final lines imagine the dead calling to the restless traveller, saying they are glad to stay. The mood is peaceful, wry, and tender, treating death as a release from the dreariness of life.
Northern Graveyards — Summary
Stony fields and lonely roads, Meagre hamlets, very lean, And most prosperous graveyards Lying all between.
Each few miles a graveyard, With its crouching column And its urns and headstones, Very dark and solemn.
But with what an accent! Yellow, purple, red, Lie the votive offerings To this public dead.
Close beside the railway, Where the smoke drifts high, These are decked in garlands For the passerby.
Even in the winter, Breaking through the snow Immortelles beguile us, When the train runs slow.
They are strangely cheerful, All these plots of ground That have lost the loneliness Of the living. Here abound
In a comradeship increasing Those who in their hour Reaped a dreary harvest, Missed a magic flower.
Over them the smoke-wreaths, Snow, and whispering grass, And the voice of neighbours, Sighing as they pass;
While the urns of iron And the barbarous vases Chant a willing ritual To forgotten faces.
So they sleep together, And their shades may say: "Wave to us, O restless traveller! We are glad to stay."