There are many other techniques Owen uses to help us imagine what the soldiers were going through, such as personification. For example; “the shrieking air” gives us the impression of the air literally shrieking, due to fear or anger. It is also very effective in letting us imagine what the atmosphere was like in and around the trenches. There were bombs and shells exploding all around, and rifles being fired in all directions. It was so loud and over-whelming that it must have seemed like the air was actually screaming itself. There are many onomatopoeic words used to really let us see and hear what it was like. Words such as “thumping” “hammered” and “pummelled” help us imagine just how bad their surroundings were. The metaphor “there we herded from the blast” is effective because when we see the word herded, we think of animals, in close proximity, in a state of confusion. This makes us think of the soldiers all very close together, panicking, and running for their lives. We can imagine that when one runs, they all do, like confused cattle. Owen manages to give reader an idea of the suffering which took place during the four years of World War One, by using many more imagery techniques. Techniques such as contrast, such as the contrast created between the inside the trenches and outside on the battlefield. The trenches are full of suffering, with moans and whines surrounding them, everything pretty quiet. While outside, bombs are falling, rain is “guttering down” and shrieks are filling the air. This contrast is effective because it lets us see the two sides of life during the war, the calm and serenity inside the trenches with the violence and aggression outside.
Long sentences and use of enjambement mirror the continuity of the war, of how the soldiers were never allowed a break, of the ever lasting suffering and chaos which surrounded them all, and also of the never-ending attacks. The simile “Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids” is very effective because we know that the Sentry is trying hard to see, but has just been near an explosion so his eyes have been seriously injured. We can easily imagine their appearance thanks to the word ‘squids’, so we can see just hoe far out of their sockets they must be, and we can imagine them to be really white, with maybe even pink through them. The Sentry is determined that he is blind, and yells “I’m blind, I’m blind, I’m blind!” At the time, we don’t know if he really is blind or if his sight will recover, but the poet, has to rush off to fight, and soon forgets about the Sentry. We find out at the end, that he did lose his sight, and sadly his life too. The writer also uses metaphors to emphasise just how horrible the conditions were, for example; “And gave us hell.” This is effective because it makes us compare the battlefield to actual hell, so we think of constant torture, pain, a place for people to be punished, where people have no choice but to be there; basically the same as the battlefield. If we think of the battlefield as hell, we can think of the Germans as being like the devil, the one who is looking over all this pain and suffering, and causing more. Onomatopoeic words such as “sobbed” and “chattering” give us an idea of the suffering, and how hard it was for the soldiers.
Wilfred Owen managed to provoke an emotional response in me through this poem because he describes everything so vividly that you can really imagine being there with the soldiers, living in the dirty trenches, surrounded by mud, with bombs flying overhead, trapped, with no escape.
We realise how the war has an ever-lasting effect on everyone involved, that they can never forget what has happened, no matter how much they would like to. “I try not to remember these things now” conveys this image. The last stanza is all written in a pretty negative tone, with use of words such as “died”, “bled” and “drowned”. There were many consequences following the war, whether from just injuries, or loss of lives. Nobody left was without constant reminders of how awful the surroundings and just trench life in general was. Many soldiers, while fighting there, would contemplate killing themselves just to escape the horrible conditions, which shows us just how bad it really was. We know that the British won the war, although if we look at how much was lost, I don’t know whether to class it as a good thing or not. We lost a lot of soldiers, and even the survivors lost a part of them, as none of them returned the same as they were before they left. So to be honest, the British didn’t really gain anything; only the ever lasting impact of war on them.
Overall, the poem was very good in describing to us the conditions of war; and how it would affect all involved forever. It made me aware of what World War One was really like, through the use of very effective techniques as explained. ☺