World War 1 Poetry Techniques

Owen uses various techniques and devices to evoke the sense of World War One. Words such as ‘beggars’, ‘children’ and ‘boys’ refers to the soldiers. In the first verse, ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sack, knocked-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge’, ‘like’ indicates that it’s the use of simile and ‘old beggars’ is hyperbole of soldiers’ fatigue. ‘Knocked-knee’ is the use of alliteration. ‘His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;’ is a visible image of the war. He depicts the pain of the death to devil by using simile. Owen uses capital letters and exclamation marks in the ninth verse, ‘Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!’. This increases the emergency and urgent of the moment. ‘As under a green sea, I saw him drowning’ is the comparison of simile and metaphor in one verse. The word ‘flung’
‘Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; but someone still was yelling out and stumbling’ explains that the helmets are not enough to support every soldier. ‘Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs’ and ‘outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind’ means that bombs drop regularly that the soldiers became uncurious about it. ‘Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots but limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind’ shows the exhaustion of the soldiers from the war. ‘Behind the wagons that we flung him in’ depicts the poor treatment for one’s hero. Those five verses explain why the war is irrational. The soldier who sacrifices for his country receives injustices treatment in extraordinary situations. Bombs occur just behind the back, but the soldiers don’t give any attention. The victims walk with lethargy which means that they don’t have much time to take a rest. Helmets are not enough to support every soldier, therefore few of them has to die in agony. After the death, the soldiers become a burden and fling in the wagon. By hiding these meanings in the verses, Owen over exaggerated the victim’s