Owen compared the soldiers to animals in order to bring out their suffering. "Knock-kneed" is a condition that makes knees hit together when walking. Owen employed this in his poem to show the reader how tired the soldiers were. They could not stand up and walk straight because they had already "cursed through sludge" for many miles. He also utilized the phrase "blood shod", which is when a horseshoe gets put on too hard and the horse's hoofs start to bleed. This exhibited the physical pain that the soldiers were going through. Even though they had lost their boots, the

The similes and metaphors that are used throughout the poem help emphasize points that are being made. Owen capitalized greatly on his similes and metaphors by using them to say something more forcefully. Right in the first line he described the troops as being "Like old beggars under sacks." This implies that the troops are not only tired, but are so tired that they have been brought down to the level of beggars who have not slept in beds for weeks on end. He also described the soldier that is in the middle of the gas bombs, saying, "Like a man in fire or lime." He said this because the gas was actually burning the soldier's flesh and causing him searing pain. Owen compared the victim's face to the devil, making it seem corrupted and evil. The final metaphor that gives this poem an intense content is one that compares "...Vile, incurable sores..." with the memories of the troops. This not only told the reader how the troops will never forget the experience, but that war is an extremely frightening tale, and they won't be able to tell these tales without remembering this painful experience. These comparisons illustrate the point so distinctly that they increase the effectiveness of the content in the poem.

Strong and forceful direct language in this poem pointed out to the reader how corrupt war is. Owen asked the reader if they would like to be there seeing and hearing a man die. He said that in the reader's worst nightmare if "you too could pace behind the wagon and watch the soldier's eyes writhing", it would be the vilest thing that the reader had ever seen. He also asked, "If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from his lungs", war would not be so 'sweet'. Wilfred Owen sums his whole poem up in the last few lines. He asked the reader if they would tel

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Approximate Word count = 1215
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)