The theme of death is central in the poem. It focuses on the inevitability of death and compares the two major states of life and death.

Houseman treats death as a transition from a transient world to one of permanence. Death is also viewed as a means of welcome escape from the travails of the world. The living are disillusioned because they are “Runners whom renown outran”.

Candidates who attempted the question merely discussed death in general without relating it to the poem.