use most associate horses with being shod, not men. By describing the goal of rest that the men were seeking as ‘distant’, Owen shows that the men knew that they had a journey in front of them. “Coughing” finds an echo later in the poem, while gas shells dropping softly suggests a menace stealthy and devilish. In line eight, the rhythm slackens as a particularly dramatic moment approaches. Stanza two focuses on one man who couldn’t get in gas mask on in time. Following the officer’s command in line nine, “ecstasy” (of fumbling) seems a strange word until we realize that medically it means a morbid state of nerves in which the mind is occupied solely with one idea. Lines twelve through thirteen consist of a powerful underwater metaphor, with succumbing to poison gas being compared to drowning. “Floundering” is what they’re already doing – in the mud – but here it takes on more gruesome implications as Owen introduces himself into the action through witnessing his comrade dying in agony. The third stanza is the aftermath of the events that just took place. From strait description Owen looks back from a new perspective in the light of a recurring nightmare. Those haunting flares in stanza one foreshadowed a more terrible haunting in which a friend, dying, “plunges at me” before “my helpless sight”, an image Owen will not forget. Towards the end of the stanza, Owen attacks those at home who uphold the war’s continuance unaware of its realities. If only they might experience Owen’s own smothering dreams” which replicate in small measure the victim’s suffering. Hell seems close at hand with the curious simile “like a devil’s sick of sin”. Owen’s imagery can only paint a picture that sticks in the heart and mind of the reader. The last lines are a repeat of the title, and also and ...
