I really love the word fritillaries - not a patch on butterfly, huh! Yep, cerements - kinda like graveclothes or something similar, and I think the "white pillars..." are supposed to be just that - apparently he was sent to... someplace during the war (Africa or the East or something?) and, well, that was where he wrote it (perhaps it's describing some kind of temple?) - incidentally we were given very few pieces of advice for writing about this, and one of them was not to read anything into that line, just take it literally.