Poetry Quotes

Men marched asleep

metaphor, showing the reader the levels of exhaustion soldiers faced, Dulce

His hanging face, like a devil's sin

simile, biblical allusion, shows the comparison of war to the devil, and the lack of change god makes. Dulce

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning

metaphor & sensory imagery describe the level of pain and suffering and how it is difficult to describe into words. Dulce.

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning

tricolon of these descriptive words (visceral imagery) forces the reader to face this visceral idea. Dulce

I try not to remember these things now

irony, as Owen states he doesn’t want to remember, but all poems are about this, showing the contrast between desire to forget and haunting memories of war. Sentry

I see your lights, but they had long gone out

Metaphor and double entendre, both showing the physical loss of sight but also the mental loss of hope on the battlefield Sentry

eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids

Vivid simile that compares the eyes of a soldier to squids, emphasizing the grotesque and unnatural state of fear and shock experienced during war. Sentry

Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime

Descriptive imagery illustrating the horrors of war, using the metaphor of rain to convey both despair and the overwhelming nature of suffering. Also juxtaposition of ‘waterfalls’, something beautiful and ‘slime’ something disgusting, represents the sudden shifts of tone on the battlefield. Sentry

One time he liked a bloodsmear down his leg

Colloquial tone suggests it was viewed as a casual thing, and ironic as this idea he once romanticised is the thing that destroyed his life. Disabled

He thought he’d better join. He wonders why…

Ironic, as the thing he thought makes sense to join ended up being demise. The ellipsis also refers to the lack of purpose and sense of understanding that soldiers face.

All of them touch him like some queer disease

The second is a simile to compare how he is attracted to women but they do not reciprocate.

And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey, Legless, sewn short at elbow.

The absence of coloiur symbolises the absense of purpose that soldiers feel after returning, and the alliteration of ‘sewn short’ softens the harshness of these words that cause detrimental effects.

What passing bells for those that die as cattle?

Zoomorphism to ascribe humans with the same principles as cattle, being bred just to die, ultimately a futile existence. Euphemism of ‘passing bells’ to downplay the recurring idea of death, as it is hard to speak on for soldiers.

Only the monstrous anger of the guns

Personification shows how weapons have become more humanised than the actual soldiers that are fighting, which is ironic.

only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle can patter out their hasty orisons

alliteration to represent the sound of gunfire on the battlefield, and the biblical allusion symbolises how the sounds of god and faith was being shut out by all this violence.

And each slow dusk a drawing-blinds of blinds.

pathetic fallacy to describe the slowness symbolises the slow, inevitable death coming, and this also alludes to God, and the lack of change God is making to this death