The third line ‘haunting’ is used as it was a feeling being natural as though the flares trying to seek out the soldiers.
The Fourth line ‘Trudge’ is an onomatopoeia are used to emphasize the fact that the pace is slow, creating the impression that the men have little strength, it tells us the image that it takes a lot of effort for them to move.
The Sixth line 'But limped on,' is a phrase that communicate the image that it is very slow moving and the reader thinks the image that the men must be injured as they were been fighting also they were suffering pain.
The last line of the first stanza 'Deaf even to the hoots of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind them,' suggests that the men are slightly don’t know what is happening around them to the war that is continuing around them. The point was that they have been forced to stand and work in the war for such a long period of time that they have become 'deaf' as they have to shout out every time other people are talking. The rhythms of the first stanza reflect of the soldiers being slow and broken of a movement.
‘Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, fitting the clumsy helmets just in time. The contrast of ‘ecstasy and fumbling’ is an effective way of showing this. The opening to the stanza, words are used to say that the movements of the soldiers, such as 'clumsy,' and 'stumbling, is the Result’ that gives the reader the impression that the whole plan was very poorly organized. Alliteration is then used in the third line to emphasize that there is
just one person left, making just little movements. 'Someone still was yelling out and stumbling.' This creates the impression that the soldier is in big panic and knows how serious it is to fit his helmet.
The writer then uses the simile in the sixth line 'As under a green sea I saw him drowning.' This tells us that the soldiers were suffering and it isn't a sweet way to end one’s life.
The seventh line, Owens describes his sight as being 'helpless,' he wanted to help the soldiers who were struggling, but it was just impossible for him to do so and it creates the impression
that the writer himself was in a dangerous situation.
The last line the sounds 'guttering, choking, drowning' are then used to highlight the point that the soldier truly is experiencing the death and he is in extremely bad pain. This not only shows how the soldiers are suffering, but he is in terrible pain. “Drowning” is used because of the chlorine gas, which explain that the soldiers has got him selves into breathing in the gas, which the gas now get into the lungs, it full of the gas inside and start to drown inside the body and soon he will come to his death.
In the final stanza a personification is used to describe his dreams as 'smothering.' This gives the image that the writer is unable to escape the nightmares he has been having often, it emphasizes the fact that it was a nightmares that it’s unforgettable experience that was very bad that he will never be able to forget about it.
‘Behind the wagon that we flung him in’ is saying to us that they didn’t have time to look after him as he was injured but only they can do was to throw him into the wagon as they were still in the ‘game’. 'His face hanging like a devil's sick of sin,' is a simile that highlights this point. This comparison says that his face was bad and didn’t look as young. The image created in the reader's mind is that the face has suddenly been changed from a young face to an old aged face that it’s ugly and hideous.
In the eighth line a very effective metaphor compares 'vile, incurable sores' with the memories of the troops. It not only tells the reader how the troops will never forget the experience, but also how it was a scary tales of their life, ones that the troops will never be able to tell without remembering the extremely painful experience. These comparisons explain the point so powerful that it increases the effectiveness of this poem.
The writer has said if the reader had experienced this agony painful situation themselves, then they wouldn't tell
with such 'high zest to children ardent for some glory, The old Lie:
Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.' Basically Owen meant was if he has to talk to a children about the war he wouldn’t talk in excitement and it was just all the lies about sweet and noble to die for your country.
Now I think the point the reader should begin to understand the experience that the writer is explaining and start to realize how offensive it was. I think that the writer describes the death so real and to try and get through to the reader how horrific it really was. It describes how exact the man is being tortured. I think Wilfred Owens aim of this poem was to get them a shock the reader want to let them feel the sense of disgusting and feeling felt by all the soldiers as they struggle to breath. At no point in this poem does Owen make use of making his poem not sound offensive. He is very clear about the horror of war.
By eve khothisen
