Suggest they have been physically broken by war. They are exhausted and dirty ‘Trudge,’ they march ‘asleep’ and they are ’drunk with fatigue‘
‘GAS! GAS! Quick boys!’
Suggest the urgency and fear of the gas attack
‘Guttering, choking, drowning’
Reinforce the horror of the soldier caught in the attack. The verb ‘drowning’ also suggest the impenetrability of the gas and how it is invading his lungs
’dreams‘
the repetition emphasises how war has infiltrated his sleep, how he can never have peace, not even when he’s sleeping
Final words‘the old lie’
allows owen to highlight how war is not joinable or glorious, but cruel, degrading, dirty and horrifying
