e creation of life. The sexual imagery plays on the continual point that his injuries, resulting from his enlisting in order to please his girlfriend and other admirers (ll. 25-6), has resulted in him being abhorrent to women. Return to poem 10.' a bloodsmear down his leg,/After the matches, carried shoulder-high' (L.21 & L.22) Again Owen uses irony effectively here. We are already aware that the soldier has lost an arm and his legs, yet here we are told that before the War he felt proud to have an injury (albeit obtained on the football field), and to be carried shoulder-high (for reasons of celebration as opposed to helplessness). The concept of reversal is again used: sporting hero to cripple, handsome to 'queer disease' (L.13), colour to dark, warmth to cold. Return to poem 11.'a god in kilts' (L.25) An indication that the soldier was a member of one of the Scottish regiments (repeated in ll.32-6). This also implies that the soldier joined up for reasons of vanity. Return to poem 12.'giddy jilts' (L.27) A Scottish term for a young woman. Return to poem 13.'Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years' (L.29) The sadness of the soldier's plight is heightened. Clearly he was under-aged when he enlisted and therefore is still young. Return to poem 14.'Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal' (L.37) Recalls the image of the football match earlier. L.22 implies that he was carried from the field shoulder-high, possibly as the result of scoring the winning goal. Here, despite having achieved far more, for far greater a loss than a 'blood- smeared leg', the crowd's reception is more hollow. Return to poem 15.'do what things the rules consider wise' (L.41) The soldier's passivity is complete. The fine young athlete has been reduced to a state of dependency on others and helplessness (heightened by the pitiful closing repetition of 'Why d...
