Themes – death, war, destruction, loss, pain, fear, suffering.
Shows the scene that they are in
and shows the audience that they Shows that they are being
are advancing. ‘Boche’ – shows The Sentry constantly bombed (repetition).
the distaste towards the Germans ‘frantic’ – creates the sense of
tension, mess, chaos.
Shows that the rain is We'd found an old Boche dug-out, and he knew,
pouring down, it’s really
muddy. The trench is
And gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell
becoming flooded and the
walls are caving in. Soldiers
Hammered on top, but never quite burst through.
are trapped.
Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime
Kept slush waist high, that rising hour by hour,
Choked up the steps too thick with clay to climb.
What murk of air remained stank old, and sour
With fumes of whizz-bangs, and the smell of men
Who'd lived there years, and left their curse in the den,
If not their corpses. . . .
There we herded from the blast
Of whizz-bangs, but one found our door at last.
Buffeting eyes and breath, snuffing the candles.
And thud! flump! thud! down the steep steps came thumping
And splashing in the flood, deluging muck --
The sentry's body; then his rifle, handles
Of old Boche bombs, and mud in ruck on ruck.
We dredged him up, for killed, until he whined
"O sir, my eyes -- I'm blind -- I'm blind, I'm blind!"
Coaxing, I held a flame against his lids
And said if he could see the least blurred light
He was not blind; in time he'd get all right.
Simile – the injury to the
eyes. They are swollen,
probably bloodshot
"I can't," he sobbed. Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids
(irritated), suggests they are
slimy / secreting some fluid
Watch my dreams still; but I forgot him there
‘floundering’ – they have to
keep moving, they are lost,
Narrator still has nightmares In posting next for duty, and sending a scout
chaotic.
about the image of the Sentry’s
eyes – haunts him. ‘shrieking’ – high pitched,
To beg a stretcher somewhere, and floundering about
loud. Could be bombs or
screams. Onomatopoeia +
To other posts under the shrieking air. personification.
Soldiers are dying/in pain/
injured. ‘wretches’ – pity the
men, sense that they are The other soldiers are not fairing
weak/helpless. very well. We see that some are
bleeding and vomiting while one
wants to commit suicide and
Emotionally distressing Those other wretches, how they bled and spewed, seems to feel that it is the only
experience for the narrator and ‘good’ thing which can be done.
he wants to repress it. He And one who would have drowned himself for good, -- Morale is broken and hope is
cannot get rid of this memory gone for many.
(‘try’). I try not to remember these things now.
Onomatopoeia: Let dread hark back for one word only: how Shows the pain of the sentry, he
has been injured. Massive injures
‘chattering’ – creates image of to the face – impact of the bomb is
his experience – cold and Half-listening to that sentry's moans and jumps,
visible on this man.
emotional response.
And the wild chattering of his broken teeth,
Massive damage and power
Renewed most horribly whenever crumps associated with the explosions.
Alliteration ‘d’ – makes the
phrase stand out. ‘din’ – a lot ‘slogged the air’ – suggests that
Pummelled the roof and slogged the air beneath --
of noise. ‘dense’ emphasises the bombs are constantly and
the variety of noises in the heavily going through the air.
scene. Through the dense din, I say, we heard him shout
‘pummelled’ suggests
"I see your lights!" But ours had long died out. aggression and that the bombs
are disfiguring the landscape.
Memories in the poem: Repetition of ‘light’: emphasises importance.
The narrator remembers the sounds Connection to the Sentry and his demise and
of war, and all of the bad things that the battle between good and evil (light vs.
happened. He remembers all the darkness)
soldiers that were left behind and
forgotten about by others. The Sentry
is his main memory, and he
remembers his injuries. The poem
shows memories of what life in the
Key:
trenches was really like as well as the
Imagery
smells.
Rhyming couplets
The narrator is also clearly haunted by
Simile/Metaphor
the memories of what he saw during
Repetition
the war.
Onomatopoeia
Wilfred Owen
