Liable To Floods

• "'Liable to floods' the farmer warned them"


  Repetition of the title for emphasis - local wisdom on the true nature of the area
• "wouldn't listen-[...]laying a fatherly hand on the farmer's shoulder"


  Cut off by the military's feeling of superiority
• Theme of naivity of humans vs the power of nature
• "A thousand tents across the valley floor"


  Inescapable, the landscape traps them
• "under Moel Siabod's shoulder"

  Personifies the mountain, providing no comfort to the Americans, emphasises the Welsh's close connection with nature.
• "Arming herself with their rifles" "the rain's fusillade and the artillery of thunder"


  Fuses military and natural semantics to emphasise sheer force of nature. Pathetic fallacy of the soldier's imminent death.
• "the river pulled herself up and spread her wings"

  Feminisation in the personification of nature. Female power being destructive - common trope in Sheer's poems.
• "this being taken at night without any say, this being borne, this being swept away"

  Rhyming couplet - natural. Futility of war vs strength of nature.