Plainly, the clumsy helmets are the gas masks or helmets that the soldiers have to put on to stop themselves from breathing in the gas. According to my research it was mustard gas that was used in the trenches. The “ecstasy of fumbling” (Stanza 2, Line 9) which he speaks of here is the adrenaline rush that invigorates the soldiers, the exhausted bodies of these soldiers who know they’ve got to get the gas masks on; otherwise, they’re going to breath in the poison gas and die. It sounds like they get the helmets and they’re trying to put it on and they can’t do it because they’re too tired, they’re fumbling, this “ecstasy of fumbling” that they feel “fitting the clumsy helmets just in time.” This line is more of an accusation made by the soldier against the helmet because it is clear that he is having trouble putting the helmet on so he calls the helmet,
Plainly, the clumsy helmets are the gas masks or helmets that the soldiers have to put on to stop themselves from breathing in the gas. According to my research it was mustard gas that was used in the trenches. The “ecstasy of fumbling” (Stanza 2, Line 9) which he speaks of here is the adrenaline rush that invigorates the soldiers, the exhausted bodies of these soldiers who know they’ve got to get the gas masks on; otherwise, they’re going to breath in the poison gas and die. It sounds like they get the helmets and they’re trying to put it on and they can’t do it because they’re too tired, they’re fumbling, this “ecstasy of fumbling” that they feel “fitting the clumsy helmets just in time.” This line is more of an accusation made by the soldier against the helmet because it is clear that he is having trouble putting the helmet on so he calls the helmet,