Exposure

• Repetition of ellipsis shows the never-ending nature of war
• 'For love of God seems dying'


  God doesn't love them anymore?

  Shows the atrocities of war through Gods unconditional love wavering
• 'But nothing happens'


  Repetition that emphasises the agony of waiting and that war isn't all about action

  Mental and psychological war

  Anaphora
• 'on us the doors are closed'


  Forgotten

  No way back from war as it is frowned upon to leave and they may not have even been able to leave

  No way back to being the person they were before their war experience
• 'slowly our ghosts drag home'


  Already dead due to their experiences on the battlefield

  Trauma

  More dignity in dying than returning home?
• 'Love is made afraid'


  Afraid to meet God?

  Afraid of the punishment even though they are technically innocent and forced to do the things they did?

  Contrast made with the atrocities of war as love is the purest emotion and even it is made afraid
• 'twitching agonies of men among its brambles'


  Potential shellshock and PTSD

  Atrocities of war
• 'silence, sentries, whisper, curious, nervous'


  Potential semantic field arising?

  Sibilance
• 'merciless iced east winds that knives us'

  'pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces'


  Personification runs throughout the poem

  Nature is attacking them
• 'pause over half-known faces'


  History forgets individuals

  Irrelevant to government showing potential corruption?
• 'Eyes are ice'


  Dead in some sort of way and won't be the same person that they were due to trauma and PTSD

  Link to 'merciless iced east winds that knive us'