Analysis

Analysis
In this poem the writer conveys his views of the war and how disastrous it was and how it is nothing like the stories told to kids in that time. The writer tells us how the war affected the soldiers both physically and mentally. In the first stanza the writer starts by talking about how the soldiers are weak and can’t even stand up straight due to the mass of equipment they are carrying. “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through”. The use of ‘bent double, like old beggars,’ tells us how the soldiers can’t stand up straight, the writer also has compared the soldiers to ‘beggars’ using a simile to show how weak they have become. The writer says ‘knock kneed,’ this shows how the soldiers have been affected physically by the war. ‘Coughing like hags,’ the writer has used another simile to compare them to hags.
The writer talks about how the soldiers still march on even though they haven’t rested yet and that they are being forced to walk day and night. It states “and towards our distant rest began to trudge, men marched asleep, many had lost their boots.” The writer says “towards our distant rest” this shows how the soldiers still marched on even though they knew they were not resting soon. Then it says “Began to trudge,” this implies how the soldiers are so exhausted they aren’t even walking properly. The writer talks about how ‘men marched asleep,’ this is to show us how the soldiers were forced to walk even when they are falling asleep. The writer shows us how brutal the war was with ‘many had lost their boots’ but they continue marching barefoot.
In the next sentence the writer talks about how the war has affected the soldiers. It says “all went lame; all blind; drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of gas shells dropping softly behind.” By saying ‘All went lame; all blind’ the writer means that the soldiers are losing senses and becoming less aware to what is happening around them. The