Their loss has left him desolate.

3. What is the general sentiment the narrator wishes to express in the poem?

While the poem is mostly a mournful poem in which the narrator expresses his sorrow over his loss and isolation, it is also seeks to share lessons that the narrator had learned through his experiences. He has come to understand the transience of life, that people live and die so easily, political or military power comes and goes, that those who wage battles would be wiser to contemplate the destructive results of their actions.

Irksome is all the realm of earth, the fates' decrees change the world under heaven:

here is wealth transient, here is a friend transient, here is man transient, here is a kinsman transient; all this place of earth hall become desolate.'-- (110)

so spake a sage in mind, sat apart in meditation.

"The prudent man should...
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