Language

• "The merciless iced east winds that knive us"


  "knive us" > brutality

  Personification - cause of soldier's pain

  Personifies nature as a force against man

  Suggests bitter, cold winter (power of nature)

  Imminent death
• "Mad gusts tugging on the wire"


  Personification > poses a serious threat to the soldiers, almost as dangerous as enemy soldiers

  "mad" > aftereffects of war on soldiers > expecting things to happen > stress/high alert

  "gusts" > large scale, powerful, humanity trying to control nature? ; trapping the wind
• "But nothing happens"


  Repetition > lots of waiting around

  Anti-climatic > futility of war

  Just as dangerous as fighting due to high stress levels

  Cyclical structure; appears at beginning and end

  > war will always be about to happen or happening

  > war is the only way to ensure that domestic life continues

  > who are we really fighting? the governments who go to war with each other, the enemy soldiers or nature