The poem begins with a description of a group of soldiers retreating from the front lines of the battlefield. They are exhausted and are,''Bent double like old beggars under sacks ''. The poet used a simile to convey the ragged wretched state of the soldiers. They are''Coughing like hags''. The once clean, strong, handsome, young men are being compared to old, ugly, ill women.
The mud in the trenches was thick and difficult to move through,'' We cursed through sludge''. Their movement is reduced by the reality of war. Cursed is not a verb of movement but he makes it seem like it is. The difficulty of reading this poem can be compared to the difficulty of war.
We know that it is night time due to the fact that the enemy are sending flares to light up …show more content…
The poet describes war by using two similes. The first simile is,''Obscene as cancer'', this suggests that war is like a disease which has the ability to infect the whole body. The second example of a simile is more complex,''Bitter as the cud''. Cud a is a bitter substance which is highly acidic and if it touched a sore it would hurt horrifically. This might respresent the excruciating pain that the gassed soldier felt,"vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues," that he otherwise would never have uttered, as he died from the gas.
Owen speaks directly to us again when he says,'' My friend''. We are told that the soldiers are young when the poet refers to them as ''boys''. They don't fully understand certain aspects of live. Such boys are ''Ardent for some desperate glory''. Young men went to war, believing that they would become heroes. The were told this with high