By using the term ‘sludge’ Owen is describing to the readers what the ground has been turned into as it has been continuously hit with shells, and has been rained and trampled on. The phrase
‘Limped on blood-shod’
Shows, that despite the fact that the men’s feet are bloodied, they would still continue to struggle on with determination to get back to camp were they can then rest their helpless bodies. This line backs up the image of pain that Owen is trying to show us.
By use of punctuation Owen uses a slow rhythm to show readers how slowly the soldiers are walking. The poet also uses metaphors to illustrate how tired these men are. The metaphor ‘Drunk with fatigue’ suggests that perhaps the men have become so tired that the have no idea what is happening around them. The words ‘blind’ and ‘lame’ also suggest to me that their senses are debilitated in some ways. The suggestion of the soldiers being senseless is backed up with the line
‘Deaf even to the hoots of shells dropping softly behind’
Another metaphor that reinforces this is ‘men marched asleep’ this again tells me how tired the men are. You could say were walking almost unconsciously but at the same time not daring to fall asleep in fear of being killed.
In Dulce et death is the gas bomb which is thrown upon the men, they are so used to hearing these bombs going off that they do not realise what has happened until someone shouts
‘Gas, Gas Quick, boys!’
These weary soldiers have suddenly been turned into clumsy panic stricken men in search for their gas masks. Owen uses direct speech for this line to create a panicky effect. The men have trouble putting on the large and clumsy masks; they fumble around fitting them on just in time. But for one man this isn’t quick enough, he yells out for help -
‘Like a man on fire’
This simile describes the tormenting pain the man is enduring and despite his efforts the fumes still manage to reach him.
The phrase
‘Under a green sea I saw him drowning’
Makes this mans death seem almost calm but then the next image brings the readers back to reality. As Owen watches helplessly the man plunges at him
‘Guttering, choking drowning’
These words describe in vivid detail the horrifying pain this soldier is enduring. Then the other soldiers ‘flung’ his body into a wagon and watched as his eyes roll back into his ‘hanging face’. Owen tells us in great detail of how this man dies by using similes such as
‘Like a devils sick of sin’
This simile tells us how desperate the man fought for his life. We are told the sound of the blood ‘gargling’ from his ‘froth-corrupted lungs’, which tells us he was choking. The simile ‘obscene as cancer’ is their to describe the sores on the mans tongue – anything that is compared to cancer is surely horrid.
Owens response to this sickly ordeal is to put people of telling their children it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country, the experience that these soldiers shared showed them that it is not honourable in any way to die at war.
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was a poet; Born in Shropshire and born in March 18th, 1893 and died on November 4th, 1918. Before the war in 1915 he was a private tutor in France, he liked teaching but after visiting some young men in hospital during the war he decided to go back to England and sign up.
After some traumatising experiences Owen injured in Somme and sent home, but returned to the war in August of 1918. Just a week before the Armistice Wilfred was involved in a machine gun attack enforced by the Germans and died in action on the Sambre Canal. He was just twenty-five when he died.