Boland - War Horse

Alliterative movement of the horse

clip, clop, casual

simile conveys destructive power of the horse

he stamps death like a mint

She is an observer

I lift the window

Enjambment further conveys the movement of the horse

its daily tether/ in the tinker camp

Onomatopoeia of the horse

his breath hissing, his snuffling head

Punctuation of the poet captures the anxiety of the moment

Down. He is gone. No great harm is done

Choice of words portrays the casualties as expendable

Only a leaf…of distant interest like a maimed limb

Further adds to the disregard of the casualties
Imagery of war

expendable, a mere line of defence against him

Assonance of O sound invokes a solemn mood

Blown from growth

Turning point and change of perspective

But we, we are safe

rhetorically asks why we would feel empathy

why should we care

Violent imagery of war

corpses, remote, crushed, mutilated?

Metaphor of people away from war looking the other way

neighbours use the subterfuge of curtains

Links to history in the past

my blood is still with atavism.
recalling days of burned countryside