As well as imagery, Owen uses sounds as well. In the first paragraph he describes that the gas-shells dropping ‘softly’ behind. Using the word softly Owen is making the reader feel that they were quiet and peaceful, and that you wouldn’t notice they were coming, he is also uses contrast to heighten the impact of the dialogue in the poem. In the second stanza after Owen has described about the gas attack, he says that ‘He plunges at me, guttering, choking, and drowning.’ By using the words guttering, choking and drowning the reader starts to get the image of this man, suffocating, not able to breathe and gasping for breath. This helps as it shows the reader what Wilfred Owen had to go through throughout the war. In the final stanza Owen describes the sounds he that his friend went through ‘gargling from the Froth-corrupted lungs.’ Owen uses gargling as it makes the reader think about how it was the blood bubbling up from the damaged lungs and telling the reader how bad the effects of the gas was. The soldiers that did manage to make it home came home with damaged lungs and other respiratory illnesses. This adds a pitiful sense of realism as they would actually drown.
In the poem Owen makes use of using powerful language. In the third stanza when Owen describes about how a team mate is put onto a wagon, he doesn’t just use ‘placed’ he uses ‘Flung.’ This has a huge impact as it describes that once they have been attacked by the gas, that they are careless and routine, like discarding the rubbish that one has no further use for.. Owen also uses in the first stanza that they ‘cursed’ their way through sludge. This has an impact on the reader as it describes that they have bad language and swearing all the way through their walks and battles. Also in the first stanza he uses ‘trudge’ this means they walked laboriously or wearily along or over. Instead of using ‘trudge’ Owen could of simply put ‘walk’ but putting walk wouldn’t have the same effect as trudge. As trudge is more descriptive and imagative than ‘walk’ it describes that they had to walk for long period of time without stopping, and from trudge it gets the reader to imagine heavy footsteps underground in mud it helps to build the mood at the start of the poem before the drama of the attack. It creates a sense of pity also by show how sad and lacking in youthful sprint the ‘boys’ were.
Wilfred Owen likes to use a lot of rhyme in his poem, I noticed this as at the end of each line there was a word that would link to a word two lines down. For example – Sludge, Trudge, boots, hoots. This has an impact as at the end of the line it doesn’t just stop it links to something else further down in the poem. The rhyming pattern throughout the poem is ABAB.
Throughout the poem Owen likes to use lots of dramatic devices. In the first stanza Owen starts by saying ‘coughing like hags’ the uses of the words hags makes the reader feel that they sound like old women or a witch. This has the effect that he makes them seem like there old men instead of young fit men. Later in the stanza Owen says that they are ‘drunk with fatigue.’ By using fatigue it makes the reader feel that they never got any rest as, fatigue means weariness from bodily or mental exertion. This makes the reader feel that they were badly done to. In the second stanza Owen uses the word ‘ecstasy.’ By saying ecstasy it suddenly contradicts the fact that they were drunk with fatigue as it means a rush of adrenaline, a matter of urgency gave them their lives. In the last stanza Owen talks about the ‘corrupted lungs.’ This has a impact as it makes the reader put themselves in this man’s shoes that is going through the process of this gas damaging his whole body. When linked to his powerlessness this creates the strong effect of remorse on the reader.
In the third stanza it doesn’t say anything about what was happening after the gas attack but it explains what Owen went through nights after the gas attack. He makes the reader know how guilty and impotent he was by saying ‘before my helpless sight.’ This makes the reader see that he felt guilty for watching helplessly while his friend died. Also he also tells us that in the dream the man who died, ‘plunges at him, guttering, choking and drowning.’ This is describing to the reader how the men suffocated pulling at Owen and gasping for his last breathe, with Owen unable to do anything to help.
Owen also makes an allusion to the Latin poet Horace as in the last line of the poem he says, ‘Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori’ which means in English that ‘it is a sweet and glorious thing to die for ones country.
To conclude this poem I feel that Owen has made the reader want to read further by using imagery to grab the attention to make them feel for the war. I also feel that he has made reader feel attentive by using powerful language. I feel that Owen was able to put forward by the allusion at the end of what he really truly thought about the war. Owen captivates the reader’s attention by the use dramatic devices.