gives us a soothing and calm sensation, which re-enacts the pace of time before the battle. The alliteration of ‘m’ sound also helps developing this impression. The nature imagery, “Stark blank sky” (L.5) with the slow ‘s’ sibilance alliteration and repetition of consonant also achieves this effect. This is a very happy natural scene, where long grass “swirled” in “May breeze”.
However, this is followed by an unpleasant simile of “pain” (L.10) and “veins” (L.9). Summer is personified while the onomatopoeia of the word “oozed” (L.9) gives us the idea of horror and danger. This links back to the metaphor in L.7, where the soldiers “come to the end of the world”. This connects with the theme of God, heaven and hell, where most soldiers who ‘goes over the top’ die.
The third stanza also stresses the slow pace before the battle, which can be seen from the words “hour” (L.13), “far” (L.14) and “slow” (L.15). Natural imagery is used to portray the silence of soldiers, who “breathe like trees unstirred” (L.18). The end stopped line makes this line stands out. Buttercups are also personified as “little brambles [that] would not yield” (L.16), giving us the impression that nature seems to react to human emotions. The “gold” warm colour has a reassuring effect, producing a positive picture. The word “little” highlights how small and helpless the soldiers are.
The fourth stanza portrays the pause before the attack. Tension slowly builds up as the “breeze” in the second stanza is described as “cold gust” (L.19). The repetition of assonants in line 19, “till”; “thrills” and “little”, speed up the pace, where “every body … tighten [them] for battle” (L.20). Element of surprise is shown with the phases of “no high flags”, “no alarms” and “no clamorous haste”. The sun is described in Line 24, stressed with the effect of caesura and is depicted as something horrible.
Stanza 5 describes the actual attack with the use of natural imageries. Buttercups here are compared with red blood (L.30) instead of the golden scenery in stanza 3. The sky, which is illustrated as a calm scenary in stanza 2, is expressed here as “burned / with fury against them” (L.29). These changes in the same natural imageries show what the field turn into when the battle starts, i.e. how destructive war is to the nature. “Green slope” (L.31), an imitation of ‘going over the top’, is personified as going to “infinite space”. This is a supernatural imagery, saying that people who go over the top is going to die. The enjambment between lines creates no end top line, giving us a sense of pace; while the caesura emphases certain words, e.g. exposed (L.29), highlighting soldiers are out in the open and is “instantly” shot down by guns, turning the field red.
Stanza 6 describes the casualties after the attack where metaphysical natural imageries are used. “the last high place” (L.33) contrasts with “the last hill” in stanza 1, describing hell and death beyond the battlefield. Bullets are described as “surfs” (L.34), as water wave that keeps on coming. The idea of hell can also be seen in the metaphor of “hell’s upsurge” (L.35) and “world’s verge”, which illustrate the non-physical world of hell underneath the battlefield.
Stanza 7 describes the aftermath and survivors of the battle. Again, soldiers are expressed as “rushed in the body to enter hell” (L.40), dead. Survivors are depicted as people,
With superhuman inhumanities,
Long-famous glories, immemorial shames - (L. 43)
The oxymoron clearly shows the truth of survivors, who are “long-famous glories” for helping the country, but is “inhuman” as they have killed so many men. The juxtaposition clearly illustrates this fact, saying they are “immemorial shames”. Juxtaposition can also be seen in the title. The word “Spring” is a happy word yet “Offensive” means death and unhappiness, foretelling soldiers will die in this battle. The last line ends with a question mark, promoting guilt for survivors who killed so many in the battle.
Spring Offensive has a broken rhythm and variable rhyme scheme (ABBA CCDD). Most line has 10 syllables but there are exceptions and a mixed iambic-trochaic meter. This irregularity produces tension for the reader.
