Life contracts and death is expected,
As in a season of autumn.
The soldier falls.
He does not become a three-days' personage,
Imposing his separation,
Calling for pomp.
Death is absolute and without memorial,
As in a season of autumn,
When the wind stops.
When the wind stops and, over the heavens,
The clouds go, nevertheless,
In their direction.
Death is an ordinary thing of which nature takes no particular notice. Compare the end of Philip Larkin’s “Cut Grass.” 
 Wind propels clouds through the sky. The speaker opens with “When the wind stops” to “The clouds go, nevertheless,” perhaps hinting toward the inviolable continuity or flow of life‚ as even without wind, the clouds continue their procession, or on a larger scale, that life continues. The whole piece has examined the nature of life and death, concluding to the normality of death in the ultimate stanza, after evaluating a specific instance in the preceding tercets. 
 Punctuation also more abundant in the final stanza, slowing the reader, perhaps to better emphasize the tranquil imagery conveyed. It is also to “wind down” from the very specific and distressing stanzas preceding—a shift from a cutting occurrence to a natural image of a general nature. 

The Death of a Soldier