The wall, serving as a painful and vivid reminder of the war, pulls the speaker back to the war. We can almost see the reflection of this man fading into the granite as his memories flood his mind. The wall and the memory of war are so powerful that the speaker must turn his head away and resist the urge to break down in tears. The wall as a symbol of the war is gripping and dramatic and helps the speaker get his point across.

The symbolism of the wall as war reinforces the poet's somber tone of the poem. The speaker resists crying and he wants to be like the wall itself -- stone cold. Instead, he sees objects reflected in the wall that only take him back and confuse his mind. He is anxious and everyone around him is, too. Here we see the angst of a past...
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