David, I weighed that possibility, which is certainly valid, but decided to take stanza 4 at its word, as I understand it: he cannot "lie easy, as a dead man lies," not "as other dead men lie," and although death has "claimed him," we're not sure it has come to collect its booty. I may be wrong about this. In any case, I find the ambiguity about his state a strength of the poem, not a weakness, in that it earns him our compassion more than death, outright and certain, could do. I thought of the people buried alive in the wreckage of 9/11, and had to stop reading for a while. After the discussion all over, maybe William will enlighten us both about his intention.
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